


I saw it in your eyes (and in that smile)

by Too_fucking_salty



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child AU, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Humour, I swear, Light Angst, Shenanigans, Slow Burn, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Warning: may induce baby fever, catra gets a good fuckin parental figure, do not copy to another site, implied past neglect, some nice fuckin childhood for these poor suckers, the love and affection they needed in their childhood, very light
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25074616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Too_fucking_salty/pseuds/Too_fucking_salty
Summary: Cyra stares at the adoption papers in front of her. This is it. If she signs it she becomes totally responsible for the physical and mental well-being of a 4 year old. Any mistakes were sure to fuck up the child. She takes a deep breath.Or,Catra and Adora get the childhood they deserve.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 362
Kudos: 557
Collections: Shera





	1. The move

**Author's Note:**

> Listen mates, I cant't get She-ra out of my head, I am obsessed, and also re-watching it despite my best efforts to stay cool. Anyways, this is a product of my daydreaming that I have decided to put in words. An anomaly really, a mate said to write it so here we are. Anyways, enjoy. Also, constructive criticism appreciated.

_ A year ago _

Cyra Applesauce, nee Sanchez, stares at the documents spread out in front of her. (God she should really change her last name back to Sanchez, why did drunk her think it was a good idea?) This is it. If she signs it she becomes totally responsible for the physical and mental well-being of a 4 year old. Any mistakes were sure to fuck up the child. 

Oh god, what if she fucks up? What if she scars her to the extent she needs extensive therapy? What if she raises her to be a  _ prick _ ? She’s such a sweet young thing but what if Cyra makes her hate her? What if…. What if she likes  _ boys _ ?! 

_Okay hang on a minute Cyra, even if the kid likes…._ boys _you’ll learn how to deal with…._ boyfriends. _You’ll watch all those shitty hetero teen romance shows and movies. There’s gotta be_ one _show or movie you can push down without gagging._ _Heh. Okay, you can do this! You’ll mother that kid with all the love you can fucking summon and then some._

Dimly, she realizes the social worker was trying his damnedest to urge her to  _ get a fucking move on lady _ . But  _ goddammit _ , this is the most important decision of her and young Catarina’s life. She’ll take as long as she fucking needs  _ thank you very much _ .

She takes a deep breath.

She grips the pen tighter and signs the documents.

“Great.” Drones the  _ gilipollas  _ in his stupid neon green prinstriped pants. “Since you have  _ finally  _ signed the documents we can collect Catarina from her room.”

_ How-how did he manage to fuck up the name Catarina so bad? Why did he pronounce it as cat-rina? Dios mio it’s not so hard to pronounce, literally 4 syllables, ka-tuh-ree-nah. _

Some primal instinct in her wants to slap the papers against his huge, sweaty forehead and see if they stick.

_ ‘Deep breaths now Cyra.’ _ Admonished a voice in her subconscious. ‘ _ You’re about to become a mother and a prime role model. At least show the  _ niña  _ how to hide a body before smothering her former case worker with a pile of papers.’ _

Encouraging herself to ignore his abysmal and pointless droning she soldiers on towards Catarina’s room. As she moves to knock on the door, like a normal person who possessed some _decent fucking manners_ , the _cabrón_ just, opens the door. _Without knocking. Joder_ , she was adopted at 17, and had lived in overflowing orphanages and foster homes. Yet even _she_ knows enough to give a person a fucking warning before barging in to a room.

Just as Cyra’s homicidal thoughts start to return, she is hit by a tiny whirlwind that hurtles into her legs.

“You came back!” The tiny ball of energy grins up at her, throwing her tiny arms behind Cyra’s knees.

Cyra smiles down at her. “Of course I did  _ mija _ .” And while telegraphing her motives, she bends down, scoops her up gently and settles Catarina on her hip. “And you know what?” Cyra asks with a wide smile, gently brushing away wild, errant curls from bright, heterochromatic eyes. 

‘What?” Is the curious reply.

Cyra's smile got impossibly wider, “Welllll” she dragged out. “Today’s the day when you get to go home with me. Forever.” 

Catarina’s eyes get really big. “You mean it?” She asks almost breathlessly. 

A small flicker of doubt and panic sparks through her. Careful not to show it, she smiles reassuringly at her. “ I mean it, you are legally my daughter now. You can even change your last name to match mine!” She smiles at her, before her eyes widen and she rushes to add: “But only if you want of course! If you don't want to that’s also fine! It’s completely your choice.”

“I want to.” Catarina says shyly while hugging her, smile as bright as ever.

Cyra feels warmth spread through her. It was the same feeling she got when her  _ Mamí  _ called Cyra her daughter for the first time. When her first girlfriend told her she loved her and when she first ate an empanada.

_ What? It was a life changing experience. _

____________________________________________________________________________

_ A year later _

Cyra Sanchez (Oh yeah, she changed it. On the same day they got Catarina’s last name changed to Sanchez. But still, she was no longer an Applesauce. Her mom can and does make fun of it at any given moment. Oh well.) was absolutely  _ done  _ with moving. Her mom and siblings had come over to help with the hard bits of course. It was the nitty gritty details that made her want to tear her hair out. 

_ Why, oh why do I own so much tableware? We’re a family of two. Why do I have 3 sets of tea sets made for 4 people? Oh right, brown households. Ugh, who has this many pots? Oh my god--  _

“ Mamí?” 

Cyra feels her spirits instantly rising.

_ Catarina, her pride, her joy. The apple of her eye. The light in her life. The sole reason for her existence. She had come to save her! _

Cyra immediately drops what she had been holding and whirls around to face her favourite 5 year old.

“Yes  _ mija _ ?” 

Catarina scrunched up her nose in the most  _ adorable  _ way. (She was  _ not _ biased. Catarina was the cutest kid to ever exist. It was just simple science.) 

“I’m hungry.”

Cyra could’ve sobbed with relief.  _ Yes! I can hold off on putting everything away in their proper places for a while longer! Technically I’ll still be doing something productive, feeding Catarina definitely takes higher priority.  _

Cyra rose and in one swift movement, scooped Catarina up and started peppering the now squealing child in her arms with kisses.

“En serio? Mi reinita tiene hambre?” She asked in an over exaggerated gasp. 

“Si  mamí.” Giggled Catarina. The sound melts Cyra’s heart to mush, causing her to once more pepper Catarina with kisses. 

Catarina calling her  _ mamí  _ always filled her with a rush of inexplicable love. Not that she was complaining. She loved the 5 year old fiercely and wasn’t intending on the feeling of ever stopping.

“Bien, mija what do you want to eat?” She asked as she set her down on a counter.

Catarina of course, just shrugged at her. 

“Yummy food I guess.”

Cyra ruffles her curly hair, which was still as wild as ever but now  _ healthy _ .  _ God _ , white people were such  _ hacks _ when it came to dealing with hair which wasn’t like straw. Poor Catarina’s hair was  _ terrible _ when they first met. The shampoo the orphanage provided just wasn’t cut out for textured hair. Cyra couldn’t blame them  _ too _ much, considering how most orphanages don’t get that much funding. But still, she gets to be at least a little salty. God knows how she survived all those years in the system with terrible hair due to terrible shampoo. Thank  _ fuck _ her  _ mamí  _ had intoduced her to the good stuff. 

“First things first, music.” Cyra snaps her fingers and opens up her cooking playlist. (If you don’t have a cooking playlist, what are you even doing with your life?). With upbeat latin music playing, Cyra got in her zone. Scanning the fridge for inspiration, she pondered over making  _ Pimientos y Chorizo Frito _ . 

It was quick, healthy but the sausages would entice Catarina in to eating the vegetables as well. Nodding decisively to herself she pulls out a spanish sausage and some peppers. Grabbing a garlic bulb along with a cutting board and a knife, she gets to work. Playfully swaying to the beat, she dramatically sings along with the song playing. It makes Catarina giggle, wiggling around on the counter. 

In a couple of minutes Cyra was plating the dish. She may have made a little too much, but it could be saved for dinner. Right as she put some on the plate for Catarina, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it, you can eat  _ mija _ .” Cyra ruffles her hair as she walks past, smiling as she hears Catarina grumble. 

Humming to herself Cyra opens the door and--  _ wow _ . The woman who rang the doorbell was--  _ wow _ . She is ethereal, standing proud and tall. It was the posture of a woman who knew her own goddamn value and Cyra was  _ absolutely digging it _ . 

“Good evening.” 

_ Oh gods _ . Cyra was not prepared for this, this woman’s voice was so  _ soft  _ and--and  _ pretty _ . Fuck, Cyra  _ get it together _ .

“Hey there.” She shoots her a hopefully charming smile. Her gaze drifts down and she  _ finally  _ notices the woman’s kids. They seem around Catarina’s age. 

_ Mm. Perhaps they’ll become friends. _

“We noticed your moving vans and thought it would be nice to bring over some cookies.” She says with a soft smile, lifting the tray in her hands for emphasis.

Cyra got her wits and manners back in that instant. 

“Oh, thank you. Please, come in.” She opens the door wider and shoots the kids a smile. 

_ A blonde and a kid who looks vaguely like the woman. Hmm, adoption? Whatever Cyra, it ain’t ya beeswax. ‘Beeswax’? Huh, the kid is rubbing off on me. _

As she turns around she’s met with the sight of Catarina running full speed at her. Her cheeks are puffed out, probably filled with food. She sidesteps her out of reflex, used to these shenanigans. But she had forgotten the people behind her. Eyes widening in horror, she turns to stop or catch Catarina, but it was too late. She crashes into the kid that looks like the ethereal being, who was watching the scene with wide eyes.

Cyra inwardly groans.  _ Son of a motherfucker _ .


	2. Apologies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos???? comments??? Please sir, I need the validation.

Cyra has no idea what she should do. The scene that’s in front of her would make a _damn_ good picture. Dealing with it, however, was a head-scratcher. Catarina’s filled cheeks had, well, exploded everywhere when she had crashed into the other kid. The kid in question takes a second to digest what just happened to her. And then she opens her mouth and _screams_. 

Cyra winces. The kid has a thin, _shrill_ scream. It is pure torture. The scream jolts everyone into motion. The blonde kid hides behind the ethereal being’s legs, eyes wide. The ethereal being herself is staring helplessly. Cyra carefully picks up a shaking Catarina from the other girl. Catarina squirms in her hold and takes off.

Cyra is torn, she wants to go and check up on her clearly panicked daughter, but she can’t exactly let strangers linger in her corridor. She picks up the kid on the floor who then runs over to her mother and clutches her leg. Cyra kneels in front of the kid.

“Hey kiddo, are you alright?”

When she stays silent and clutches her mother’s leg tighter, Cyra sighs.

“I’m sorry for what happened just now.” She says. “Catarina and I usually do this to have fun, it’s normally just the two of us so neither of us was expecting this to happen. If you come inside I can help you clean up?”

She asks the last bit to both the woman and her child. She notices the blonde looking at her with her head tilted and eyes slightly narrowed, Cyra lets it slide.

“That isn’t necessary.” Says the woman.

Just as Cyra feels her heart sinking, the woman continues.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound harsh. We live right next door, so it’s honestly not that big of a deal.” The woman smiles softly at Cyra.

The kid looks at her and shyly says. “I’m okay.”

Cyra stands and chews on her lip.

“If you are free, I would like to invite your family over for dinner tomorrow. As an apology.”

The woman hesitates and shakes her head a little.

“It’s alright really, it was an accident. And accidents are bound to happen with little kids. Besides, you are still moving in. I don’t want us to intrude.” She smiles reassuringly at Cyra.

“I get that, It’s just.” She sighs. “It’ll be better on my conscience this way. Please?”

The woman holds her gaze for a moment.

“Alright, if you are sure.” The woman smiles softly at her. “Oh, before I forget, here you go.” And with that, she hands Cyra the tray with cookies.

“Thank you, um…” Cyra trails off, realizing for the first time that she did not know the pretty lady’s name. _Nice going, Sanchez._

“Oh, where are my manners. My name is Angella Fukuhara.” She extends a hand towards Cyra who switches the tray to one hand before taking it. 

And, _holy fuck_ . _Of course her name is Angella. Dios-fucking-mio, she has the looks and voice of an angel. What the fuck. Even her_ hand _is so soft._

“Cyra Sanchez.” She gives her a large grin. “Um, how many people can I expect tomorrow?”

“Just 4.” Angella says softly.

“Fantastic.”

Angella smiles at her before saying. “We’ll get out of your hair now. I imagine you would want to check up on your daughter.”

Cyra smiles gratefully at her and opens the door for them. 

“We’ll see you both tomorrow.” Angella waves at her, before taking the hand of each child.

Cyra closes the door and makes her way through the house. She places the tray on the kitchen counter and sighs. Her steps are light as she walks towards Catarina’s room. She knocks gently.

“ _Mija_? Can I come in?”

No answer.

Cyra worries her lip. She wanted to respect her daughter’s boundaries. But, her heart clenched tightly in her chest at the thought of Catarina being upset alone. She resolved to ask her one more time. If there was no answer, then she’d just wait by the door till Catarina came to her.

“Do you want me to go _mija_?” 

There is some shuffling and a weak voice calls out.

“No.”

Cyra breathes out.

“Okay, I’m here if you need me.”

She slides down against the door and lets her head fall back. She could think of the menu for tomorrow while she waited. Half-heartedly she makes a rough outline for tomorrow’s dinner. Lasagne as a main dish, veggie pasta in case they were vegetarian. Kid-friendly sangria, she refused to keep alcohol in the house with Catarina. Garlic bread as a side or appetizer. Maybe some tiramisu as dessert.

The door behind her suddenly opens and it is pure luck that she manages to stay upright. Still, seated, she turns around. Only to be met with the sight of Catarina’s tear-stained face and red eyes. Catarina averts her eyes quickly and pulls her cat plushie closer. 

“Lo siento mamí. I didn’t mean it.” She mumbles, face buried in her cat hug toy.

Cyra feels her heart break into two. Catarina was like this when she first adopted her. Cyra hadn’t gotten it at first. From experience, she figured that Catarina’s previous homes hadn’t been very nice to her. Catarina and Cyra had bonded fairly quickly. Soon enough, Catarina had become bubbly and excitable with Cyra. So to hear her adopt the same mannerisms as before made Cyra want to cry.

“Hey, hey baby it’s not your fault.” Cyra holds out an upturned palm, a silent offer of her hand. Catarina hesitantly takes it. Cyra inwardly releases a sigh of relief. Rubbing her thumb over Catarina’s hand she continues.

“Baby it’s okay, it was an accident. Accidents happen. We’ll just be a little more alert in the future, ‘kay?”

Catarina nods slightly.

“Is...is the girl okay?” Asks a meek voice.

Cyra smiles at her and gently squeezes her hand.

“Yeah, she’s okay. I think she was just a little surprised.”

Catarina seems to run this over in her head and steps closer to burrow herself in Cyra’s arms.

Cyra lets her climb in her lap and presses a kiss to Catarina’s head.

“I love you _mija_.”

“I love you too _mamí._ ”

Cyra shifts a little. 

“Hey, _mija_?” A hum. “I want you to know that I wouldn’t get mad at you for something like what happened today. I wouldn’t have screamed at you, and I wouldn’t have let anyone scream at you. Scratch that, accident or not, I won’t ever scream at you. Okay?”

Catarina looks at her for a moment, clutching her stuffed toy Melog and leans into Cyra’s chest.

Catarina had trouble expressing her emotions and thoughts sometimes. When Cyra had gotten her the hug toy, she named it Melog and expressed herself through him. Catarina’s therapist had been thrilled that she was expressing herself. Cyra had been relieved.

“She scared Melog. Melog thought she was hurt and that Melog would get into trouble.” She says while fiddling with the stuffed cat. 

Cyra presses another kiss to Catarina’s head.

“I’m sorry that Melog was scared. Melog is not going to get into trouble. Does Melog want to eat?”

Right on cue, Catarina’s stomach grumbles. Cyra suppresses a laugh. Catarina wrinkles her nose. Cyra’s heart sang again.

“I think Melog is _really_ hungry _mamí._ ” 

“Guess we better feed him, huh? Otherwise, he might become a _grumpy_ kitty.” Cyra stands, still holding Catarina.

“Meow Meow.” Chirps Catarina, nuzzling into her neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen my dudes, I have so many plans for this fic. If you're looking for a quick catradora fic this ain't it. This is a slow burn for the ages.


	3. Dinner and Oh-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I asked and you guys fucking delivered. PLEASE, keep the comments coming, I love you all. Also I hate writing the name Catatrina but I have planssssss. 
> 
> Also, special thank you to SowLiz for helping me with the Spanish part. 
> 
> And thanks to Inbetween for convincing me to set the dinner on fire. No thanks for killing my adverbs tho.
> 
> Muerte antes que el deshonor. - Death before dishonor

The next morning finds Cyra aggressively putting away the remaining boxes. She is a machine. She is focused and nothing will distract her--

“Are you cleaning?”

Catarina pads into the room, blearily rubbing her eyes. She frowns and tilts her head in confusion.

“Is _abuelita_ coming? Or _tio_ Frankie? Or _tia_ Gina? Or--”

Cyra cuts in before Catarina goes on to name their entire family.

“No, no _mija_. We uh, we’re having people over for dinner later.”

When Catarina just squints at her she continues.

“So you remember the people who came over yesterday? Well, they’re our neighbours, so I thought it would be nice to invite them over for dinner.”

Catarina’s eyes widen in alarm.

“I--what? But--”

“Hey.” Cyra takes Catarina’s tiny hands into her own. “It’ll be fine, I promise. If they start acting mean, I’ll be the first one to tell them to go away.”

Catarina bites her lip. 

“Should I apologise?”

Cyra softly taps Catarina’s trapped lip. A silent reminder to leave her poor lip alone.

“Do you think you should?” A nod. “Then that’s your answer _mija._ ”

Catarina squints at nothing for a moment before nodding decisively. She hugs Cyra, who picks her up and drops her into a chair. 

“You want cereal?” 

At Catarina’s enthusiastic ‘yes!’, Cyra ruffles her hair and pours out a bowl. 

With Catarina happily munching on her lucky charms, Cyra is free to go all out on cleaning. She stares at the remaining boxes with the stare of a woman on a mission. _You will meet your demise_.

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra feels good. She feels terrific.

Her lasagne looks heaven sent, her pasta? Fan-flipping-tastic. Her garlic bread? Good enough to die for. 

Sangria? These kids will have an awesome sugar-rush but that’s a problem for the future. 

Her tiramisu... that was her pride and joy. She’d reduced the caffeine and sugar for the kids, but by god did it look so very appealing. The top cocoa layer? She’d spent 15 painstaking minutes perfecting it.

Everything was ready. The food? Checkity check. Catarina? Looking very cute, as always. (There is absolutely no bias here, shut up). She had changed out of her ‘enemy of the state’ pyjamas into a _gorgeous_ red suit. (The pyjamas were a gift and they were so _soft_. The fact that they captured her essence was just an added bonus.) 

The suit had gotten her a lot of numbers whenever she wore it. Angella and her family were all that were left.

_Ding-dong._

_Speak of the devil and he shall appear._ Cyra manges _one_ step towards the door before Catarina _shoots_ off like a bat escaping hell.

“I’ll get it!” She yells, sprinting at breakneck speed.

“ _Catarina Elena Sanchez you are NOT allowed to open doors by yourself and you know this! Get back here!”_ Cyra screeches, careening after Catarina, who has already reached the door. 

Grinning at Cyra, she hurls it open. Cyra forces herself to straighten up and act casual as she takes large, awkward steps to reach her neighbours.

“Hi, good evening.” Cyra smiles, extending a hand forward to an amused Angella. Her eyes flicker to the man beside her briefly. Cyra convinces herself she’s only a _little_ jealous of his long, shiny hair.

_Oh well_ . _Angella was too amazing to be single_. 

“Good evening.” Angella says, voice still so _soft_ . _Cyra will lay off of course, just give her some time to get over her voice_.

“Hi, I’m Micah.” The man gives her a wide smile and shakes her hand.

“I’m Cyra. Please, come in.” She steps back as they enter, leading them to the living room.

“This my daughter, Catarina.” Catarina waves cutely at them. It makes Cyra’s heart melt and she forgets about her recent crimes. 

_‘Such a pushover’,_ clicks a voice at her playfully, sounding suspiciously like her mother’s. 

“These are our daughters: Glimmer,” Micah points to the girl who looks like a tiny copy of him. “And Adora.” He points to the blonde, who had been looking around aimlessly. She glances at Micah curiously for a moment before looking away again. 

“Oh! We brought you a bottle of wine.” Angella smiles as she passes it over. Cyra doesn’t know how to tell them she won't be drinking it. She accepts it; she’ll hand it off to her _mami_ or someone later. 

“Thank you, you shouldn’t have. I’ll put it in the kitchen.” She turns to see Catarina talking to Glimmer and Adora, the blonde not really paying attention.

_She must be apologising_ , thinks Cyra with a smile.

When she returns she makes small talk with Angella and Micah. 

She learns that they own a tech and prosthetics company called Brightmoon. They were childhood friends turned lovers and Glimmer is their biological daughter. Adora, on the other hand, was recently adopted. Her caretakers at the orphanage had told them she was mute. Both Angella and Micah are 30.

They in turn learn that Cyra is: an accomplished lawyer at 27, was adopted at 17, and that she had adopted Catarina a year back.

“Why don’t we move to the dining table?” Suggests Cyra, figuring that she’s made sufficient small talk. With their hums of agreement she leads them to the table. As she brings out the dishes, she gives them a run down on what she prepared. 

“Okay, so um, there’s lasagne, with meat. Vegetable pasta, garlic bread, and kid friendly sangria.”

Angella and Micah exchange amused glances but say nothing.

Conversation during dinner is scattered. The highlight is when Catarina grumbles ‘What a _hack_ ’, in response to Cyra telling Angella and Micah about a difficult client of hers.

Cyra has to take a moment then. Her heart is melting. Her daughter was picking up on _her_ vocabulary. It takes everything in Cyra not to tear up in pride. 

“Should I bring out the dessert now?” Asks Cyra during a brief lull in the conversation. 

She’s content. The dinner is going great. She’s sure Angella, Micah and her were on their way of becoming friendly acquaintances.

Glimmer perks up.

“There’s _dessert_?!”

Cyra laughs, half at Glimmer’s unmasked enthusiasm and half at Angella and Micah’s expressions. They wore the classic ‘ _Oh my god you never do this at home, why now?’_ expressions. 

“Yeah, let me get it--”

“No _mami_ , I’ll get it!”

Oh gods. Cyra could die happy right now. Her heart swells with love and affection for Catarina. Her little girl is being _responsible_. She tries very hard to keep all her emotions under control. 

“Are you sure _mija_ ? It’s kind of heavy.” She _was_ proud of Catarina for taking initiative, as long as she didn't bite off more than she could chew.

Catarina shoots her a disgruntled look, her nose scrunched up.

“No _mami_ , I got it.” 

“Alright, alright.” She holds her hands up in surrender, grinning.

Catarina nods happily and skips towards the kitchen.

Cyra sees Angella and Micah exchange an impressed look. She smirks internally. Damn right her kid was impressive.

Cyra engages the adults in conversation as Catarina walks out with the tiramisu dish in her hands, tongue poking out in concentration. 

Catarina very deliberately walks towards the seat opposite Glimmer.

She places the tiramisu on the table and clambers on top of the chair. Then she pushes it in Glimmer’s direction. 

The tiramisu, Cyra’s pride and joy, now bears the carvings ‘I’m sorry you were in my way’ in shaky, child-like handwriting. Catarina _slams_ a shrek figurine on to the table. 

Catarina grins _proudly_ at Glimmer. 

Cyra wants to cry.

Glimmer gapes at the tiramisu, before her face contorts in _utter_ outrage. She snaps up a macaroni piece from her plate and _flicks_ it at Catarina. It hits her dead in the forehead. The offending macaroni hits the table with a noise like thunder.

Cyra might be going into shock.

Catarina’s grin slides off her face. She plunges her hand into the tiramisu and _slaps a chunk_ into Glimmer’s face. 

The look on Glimmer’s face screams murder. She screams and starts throwing pasta as fast as her tiny body can go.

Adora, who had only been observing, open-mouthed, leaps up on her chair. She raises her fork to the high heavens and roars;

“Muerte antes que el deshonor!” But her lisp turns it into ‘Muedte antez que el dezhonod’. It’s no easier on Cyra’s poor heart.

Adora hurls her lasagne at Catarina. She misses. It demolishes the tiramisu.

Cyra is _definitely_ in schock.

Angella, who had until now thought Adora mute, looks at her with stars in her eyes. 

Cyra is frozen to her seat. Micah, the only parent still capable of speech, raises his hands placatingly.

“Heyyy kiddos. How about we all calm down? How about we enjoy the food? Hmm? Or,” His voice drops to a dramatic whisper. “We can _braid_ each other's hair.”

The kids ignore him.

Cyra drops her head on the table with an audible ‘ _thunk_ ’.

“Men.” She cries pitifully.

She raises her head in time to see Adora grab a large piece of lasagne. Her eyes steeled in determination, she rears her hand back and takes careful aim.

Cyra sees it happening in slow motion. 

Oh no. _Oh no_. Her baby was going to get hit. Probably right in the face. Cyra couldn’t lose her daughter like this. As Adora goes to deliver the fatal blow, Cyra lunges from her seat. Everything has slowed down. Someone is screaming. Cyra dives in front of Catarina. The lasagne strikes her. She goes down. 

The screaming has stopped. It takes her a minute to realize that she had been the one screaming. She’s ready to close her eyes, become one with the floor, when her eyes snap open. 

Hang on a _fucking_ moment. _She_ was the adult here. _She_ had the power. She was _god_ to these children.

She rises and a thousand suns burn in her eyes. 

“Enough.” She commands. The kids freeze immediately. They dare not question the authority in her voice. Even Micah sits up straighter.

“You three, upstairs _now_. Come downstairs when you’ve talked it out.” Her tone bears no room for argument. She runs a hand through Catarina’s hair for a second, telegraphing she isn’t angry, just upset.

Catarina leaves the room, defeated. Glimmer solemnly follows, Adora guarding her back. Cyra doesn’t like the look in the blonde’s eye.

“...Wine?” Micah asks weakly. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come bug me at too-fucking-salty on tumblr.


	4. Shrek?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GODS!!!! we have jumped from 445 hits to 1066!!! Can you imagine????
> 
> Also I'm moving so updates may be scarce for a while. I chose the best time to write.
> 
> And I almost killed my beta and myself with buff Adora. 
> 
> Also yall's comments bring me serotonin and motivation so PLEASE, keep em coming.

Adora follows the short purple girl (Glimmer?) closely. She is certain that they’re being sent upstairs to continue fighting. 

Her fists clench. She may not know who these weird people were, or why she was with them, but there was no way she’d let the girl with 2 different eyes win. _ ‘Death before dishonour’ _ , a voice in her subconscious whispers. She nods, determined. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra is pacing. She is  _ flipping  _ agitated. She looks ready to throw some _ flipping _ hands.

At one point Micah had slunk off to get the bottle of wine and 3 wine glasses. Cyra hadn’t even noticed. There is a glass in a still unresponsive Angella’s hand. She also hasn’t noticed.

Micah isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do in this situation. His wife is, well, perfectly content with staring into the distance. 

His very angry and very new neighbour is trying to pace a hole into her floors. The kids have been banished upstairs by said neighbour. 

Considering the current situation, he doesn’t think his usual tactic of braiding the hostile’s hair would go over very well. 

Just as he’s exploring more options, the angry neigh--  _ Cyra _ snaps around and slams her hands on the table. Her hand lands in errant lasagne. She doesn’t seem to notice. Micah increases her threat ranking.

“ _ Who _ .” She clearly enunciates every word of her sentence. “Is  _ Shrek  _ in this _? _ ” 

Micah stares at her.

Cyra continues, tone so  _ dangerous  _ that Micah resists the urge to dive for cover.

“Why did Catarina slam down his figurine? Has he been  _ brainwashing  _ her? I am going to sue that--”

She spits something rapidly in Spanish and Micah is  _ very  _ sure that it’s nothing flattering.

“Shrek? The, the... ogre?”

“Damn right he’s an ogre!” Cyra seethes, fury blazing in her eyes.

“I--um, you can’t…  _ sue _ Shrek. Or at least I’m fairly certain you can’t. He’s, he’s just a cartoon ogre.” 

“That just means I don’t have to worry about the morality.” Cyra has a weird gleam in her eyes. Micah doesn’t like it. He wants to cry.

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra is  _ pissed _ . She is going to  _ fucking strangle someone _ . Catarina was better than this. She knows how to apologise to someone. There must be something else that sparked this.

She will sue that fucking ogre no matter what.

____________________________________________________________________________

Catarina is, to put it shortly, feeling not that great. Her  _ mami  _ was upset. But it wasn’t even her fault! She had  _ tried _ to apologize, but the purple menace hit her with the macaroni! What was Catarina supposed to do? Let her get away with it? As if!

But now she’s covered in food and has to talk it out with the other girls. Her saving grace is that the other girls are also covered in food. What are their names again? Glitter and… something with an A.

She leads them to her room, and turns to face them with a sigh. She barely manages to get the sigh out before the blonde rams into her.

“ _ What are you doing?! _ ” Catarina screeches, wiggling under the blonde’s weight. “ _ Get off me! _ ”

The purple menace lunges for the blonde’s arm as she raises it.

“Adora,  _ no! _ ” 

The blonde falters. She frowns in confusion at the purple girl. Catarina uses the blo--  _ Adora’s _ momentary distraction to wiggle away. 

Adora glares at her and wrenches her arm from Glitter’s hold. 

Catarina and Adora drop into crouches, eyes narrowing dangerously as they begin to circle each other.

“Guys, stop!” Glitter commands, stomping her tiny foot for effect. It falls on deaf ears.

Predictably, Adora strikes first. She lunges, but Catarina is faster. She rolls out of the way and Adora crashes to the floor, her momentum working against her.

“Are you brain damaged?!” Catarina screams, jabbing a finger into a prone Adora’s forehead.

Adora grabs Catarina’s wrist and  _ pulls _ . Catarina is helpless as she is jerked forward as Adora throws her to the ground. The two fumble, scratching and ripping at each other’s hair as Glitter screams for them to knock it off. 

Adora somehow manages to knock Catarina on her back and once again pins her to the floor.

“Te dije que pararas!” Yells a highly frustrated Catarina, kicking her legs in vain.

Adora’s eyes widen. She sits back. 

“Que? Tu hablas español?” She asks breathlessly.

____________________________________________________________________________

Angella is reeling. Adora, young, sweet Adora. She--she had  _ spoken _ . 

“Micah.” She says softly, effectively interrupting his conversation with Cyra. 

“Adora. She spoke.” Her eyes widen. “Adora speaks  _ spanish _ .” 

Adora spoke Spanish. Of course.  _ That’s _ why she hadn’t understood them. It was why she hadn’t spoken. Shame curls through her. How could she have missed this? She should’ve paid more attention. She shouldn’t have taken Adora’s former caretaker’s words at face value. She should’ve--

“Oh right. She yelled ‘death before dishonour’ when she stood on the chair.” Cyra’s voice cuts off her spiraling thoughts. She looks at the younger woman, who had finally begun to relax. 

Angella looks down. There is... a filled wine glass in her hand? She drinks it. She deserves it.

___________________________________________________________________________

Glimmer is gaping at Adora. She thought Adora was mute! But--but she’d spoken! Granted, it was to start a fight.

“You. Can.  _ Speak?! _ ” She squeaks.

Adora looks taken aback, head whipping around to face Glimmer. Her mouth opens as her eyes dart elsewhere. 

Under a motionless Adora, Catarina scrambles away.

Glimmer ignores her as she pulls Adora out of the room. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra collapses into a chair. She’s tired. This night hadn’t gone the way she’d expected it to. 

All she had wanted was a nice dinner, no food fights, no crimes against tiramisu. She was still miffed about the tiramisu. It was a true crime that she hadn’t gotten to taste it. 

She couldn’t even take anyone to court because her own daughter was an accomplice to the crime. She couldn’t do that to Catarina. She loves Catarina.

She spies a filled wine glass in front of her. Micah must have poured some for her. Ugh, she may as well take a sip.

_ ‘If there was a good thing to come out of this’ _ , she muses, ‘ _ was that they found out that Adora wasn’t mute. Good for her. _ ’

Just as Cyra raises her glass to take a sip, Angella leaps to her feet, empty wine glass raised to the heavens. Cyra gets flashbacks to Adora leaping on to her chair with her fork raised up.

‘ _ Please. _ ’ She pleads. ‘ _ Don’t throw wine in my new house. I can’t take it. Not twice in a night. _ ’

“I must go to her!” Angella yells, eyes holding a frantic gleam. She haphazardly places the glass on the table before striding towards the stairs in determination 

“Uh, Angie.” Micah laughs nervously, also standing. “What are you doing?”

Cyra isn’t sure she wants to know.

The top of the stairs thunder.

Cyra  _ really  _ doesn’t want to know. But she has to make sure her newly acquired house survives the night. Ugh,  _ responsibility _ .

When she reaches the scene, she’s met with the sight of a frantic Glimmer dragging Adora behind her. She collides with Angella, who had been halfway up the stairs.

“SPANISH!” They yell at each other, at the same time.

Cyra throws back her wine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also,,, my fantastic beta,,,, made me FANART. EEEEEEE.
> 
> Here's a link :)
> 
> https://bluesquirrels.tumblr.com/post/623459592700149760/fan-art-for-the-she-ra-fanfic-i-saw-it-in-your


	5. Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so stupid I nearly wrote the possible proposal scene even though the story has barely started.
> 
> Rope burn is not fun, I am now a mattress wrangler.
> 
> Aaand, I got it to a school, all by myself.
> 
> Thank you SowLiz for the Spanish translation!
> 
> Also, keep the comments going!
> 
> Ven cariño, sentémonos en el sofá- come sweetie, let's sit on the sofa
> 
> ¿Ellos? ¿Ellos, me quieren? ¿En serio? ¿Estás sugura?- They, they, want me? Really? Are you sure?

Cyra sees Adora shifting nervously behind Glimmer. Her heart twinges. 

“Why don’t we move to the couch?” She suggests. Then, looking at Adora she adds: “Ven cariño, sentémonos en el sofá.”

Adora gapes at her slightly, before her features lighten up. She moves easily despite Glimmer’s strong grip. 

After climbing down the stairs Angella approaches her somewhat uncertainly.

“I, um, I don’t mean to presume or offend--”

“I can translate for you, don’t worry.” Cyra smiles at her. 

Angella visibly sags in relief, shooting her a grateful smile.

When they get seated on the couch, Adora chooses a place next to Cyra, looking at her with, well, _adoring_ eyes. Angella takes a seat beside Adora, sandwiching her between the two of them.

“Adora.” Angella starts, and takes her hand when Adora turns to look at her. “I-- _We_ love you. We have adopted you and uh, we’d like you to be a part of our family.” She smiles at her, before it wavers slightly. “That is if you want of course.”

Cyra dutifully translates.

Adora’s eyes widen as she glances to the Fukuhara clan, chewing on her lip in thought.

“¿Ellos? ¿Ellos, me quieren? ¿En serio? ¿Estás sugura?” Adora looks at her with unbridled hope shining in her eyes. 

Cyra’s heart clenches so tightly she’s worried about it. Had someone told her otherwise? Who says that to a _child_.

She tamps down her own raging emotions and translates it. The heartbroken look on Angella’s and Micah’s face tells her that they had come to the same conclusion.

Micah clears his throats and says:

“Of course we do. We mean it, we are _super_ sure.” He gives Adora a dorky finger gun and a thumbs up, simultaneously. Cyra feels something visceral stir up inside her. She buries it down.

When Cyra translates, Adora’s eyes instantly water and she flings herself in Angella’s lap. Angella herself has unshed tears in her eyes as she hugs a sobbing Adora. A teary Micah and Glimmer join the hug.

Cyra looks away from the sobbing Fukuhara family on her couch, her heart was doing weird things, should she get that checked out? 

Cyra is brought out of her thoughts as she feels something drop heavily into her lap. She looks down to find Catarina leaning into her chest, eyes shut. Cyra brings her arms around her and presses a kiss to the top of her head.

__________________________________________________________________________

_A week later_

Cyra is humming happily. She’s just installed a trampoline for Catarina. She’s going to _love_ it.

Just as she steps inside, Catarina crashes into her legs. Cyra easily picks her up and dangles her upside down. 

Catarina squeals and giggles. Cyra’s heart is melting again. Her kid was so cute. 

“ _Mami, stop!_ ” Catarina manages to get out between her infectious giggling.

Cyra takes pity on her and slings Catarina over her shoulder.

“Alright _mija,_ wanna check out the trampoline?”

“Yes!” Catarina wiggles happily on her shoulder.

Cyra grins as she makes her way to the trampoline. She drops Catarina on to it, who in turns giggles as she bounces. She rights herself and starts jumping.

“ _Mami_ , join!” Her little ball of energy demands. Who is Cyra to refuse her? 

Logically, Cyra knows she has work that she should do, but her daughter is way more important. 

When Cyra’s had enough of jumping, she scoops Catarina into her arms and steps off the trampoline. After peppering her with kisses, she dangles Catarina upside down once again. 

Cyra carries the out of breath and squealing kid inside. What she misses is two blue eyes staring at her back in thought.

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra’s brows furrow as she reads over the latest email she’s gotten. It’s from a ‘Mara Grayskull’ over a possible case of corporate fraud, but she can’t divulge details on email. She wants to meet. She’s written down a place and date and if it works for Cyra.

Cyra sighs as she leans back in her chair. This seemed shady. Perhaps this ‘Mara’ was afraid of possible reprecutions if whatever she knew came to light. In that case this was probably tied to a well known company with powerful people on it’s board. 

_Curiosity killed the cat..._

She didn’t become a lawyer to shy in front of a challenge. She shoots off a quick email confirming the meeting. She marks it down in her calendar, now it’s only a question of waiting. 

_...but satisfaction brought it back._

__________________________________________________________________________

Adora likes her neighbour. Cyra was pretty and spoke _Spanish!_ She also had helped with the confusion with her new family. Her daughter, Catarina, was pretty okay when they weren’t fighting.

She grins. She has a family now! She has two parents and a sister! They can’t communicate all that well but Adora thinks they’re learning. They say random words in Spanish and look very proud, it makes Adora feel something… weird in her chest, even if the words sometimes sound weird. They’re also trying to teach her some English. They have a semi understanding of each other.

Her family likes going on walks. Adora doesn’t really understand why, but she loves to be outside! 

So she’s happily humming as they walk down their street.

Her new father suddenly points and exclaims:

“¡Mira! El pedito!” 

Adora whips her head around to gape at him. 

_A what?!_

He looks back at her, smile faltering.

Adora’s eyes follow to see what he had been pointing at.

_Oh._

It was a _puppy_ , not a fart.

She shakes her head at him.

“Pe _di_ to.” She frowns, she had meant to say ‘ _perrito_ ’ but the gap in her teeth made that difficult. 

“Thh.” She tries to enunciate, that was _not_ an ‘r’. _Argh!_

Micah looks hopelessly confused. 

“I think she means _perrito_ love.” Her new mom speaks, Adora’s eyes snap to her once she hears her say ‘ _perrito_ ’. Yes! That’s _exactly_ what she was trying to say!

Adora grins at Angella, darting forward to give her a quick hug before walking back to Glimmer, who immediately takes her hand. 

Oh right. At first she had found all the touching weird, because other people were mean if she did it. But her new family loved it so it was okay. 

She hopes she can stay this time.


	6. So you want a lawyer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally moved woohoo!
> 
> I fell in to a very deep hole of Mara feels during this, there may have been tears.
> 
> I would've updated yesterday but I had to celebrate Eid. Eid Mubarak if anyone here celebrates.
> 
> Also I hope y'all know that whenever I write fluff and humor I listen to death metal and heavy rock.
> 
> As always, keep them comments going, I love and need the validation :^)

Cyra checks her email again. This was the correct place, _Thaymore coffee & cake _. 

She makes her way in, not really sure who she was looking for. Seeing as Mara asked her for help, Cyra hoped she recognised her.

The door opens with a ring, alerting a certain blue eyed brunette seated inside.

Cyra takes in the interior of the shop. The cafe’s theme is… party in a rainforest? There’s a lot of vegetation spread around the cafe, streamers and party hats hanging off the plants. Cyra breathes in. It smells earthy and like the rain. Mixed with the coffee wafting through the air, it smells _heavenly_.

As she rakes her eyes over the cafe for an empty booth or table, a woman with brilliant blue eyes walks towards her. 

Cyra steps aside, assuming the pretty woman wanted to exit the cafe. The woman extends her hand towards Cyra.

“Mara Grayskull.” She introduces herself with a friendly smile.

“Cyra Sanchez.” She shakes Mara’s hand. 

Mara leads her to a booth in the back, covered by a giant (fake?) tree, obscuring any outlookers' view to them.

“Would you like anything?” Mara asks as they sit down.

“A Cappuccino please.” 

Mara waves down a server who takes her order.

As soon as they’re out of earshot, Cyra leans forward.

“Let’s talk business.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Catarina is happily eating her popsicle. She likes Angellla! She gave them popsicles _before_ they asked.

She sighs happily as she finishes it. Maybe her _mami_ leaving Catarina with her neighbours wasn’t the _worst_ idea.

Infront of her Glimmer suddenly leaps to her feet, grabbing Adora’s arm and attempting to drag her along.

“Come on! Let’s play tag!”

Adora digs her feet in as she shakes her head.

“No, no, we play _las escondidas._ ”

“Hide and seek. I wanna play hide and seek too.” Catarina helpfully translates at Glimmer’s confused expression.

Adora looks at Catarina and grins happily.

Glimmer frowns at the exchange, small seeds of hurt and jealousy blossoming on her face.

“But I wanna play tag!” She stomps her foot down angrily.

Catarina and Adora exchange a look, furthering Glimmer’s ire.

“Ugh! I knew it! You guys like each other better! Go play by yourselves!” She glares at them for good measure.

Adora’s face crumples in fury.

Catarina, sensing a horrible throwdown, panics and throws herself between them.

“Wait! Wait!”

Two angry Fukuhara’s look her way.

“How ‘bout we solve this like my _mami_ solves grownup arguments?”

Glimmer narrows her eyes at her, crossing her arms sulkily.

“How?”

Catarina grins. This is her time!

“With a lawyer of course!”

____________________________________________________________________________

Mara stares at her coffee. She sighs and sits up straighter, looking into warm, brown eyes.

“I work for Eternia, I was recently promoted to Chief Financial Officer and uh…”

Mara breaks their eye contact, glancing downwards briefly.

“Congratulations.” Cyra says neutrally, her mind revving. 

_Eternia’s that big, hot shot construction company. What kind of shady shit are they up to?_

Mara tries to smile but it comes out as a grimace.

“I uh, I noticed something wasn’t adding up with the finances. There was a break between the income and expenses, a sum of money just… disappeared. I tried to bring it up with the superiors but they kept brushing me off. So I went digging on my own and um, I found out that the money was going to resources to poison native land. They’re trying to bring down the price to buy it.”

Mara brings a hand to the back of her neck in a soothing manner and continues with a troubled look on her face. 

“I visited the site and the people there were disheartened. Their water supply has been contaminated with alarming levels of lead, and because of that their agricultural reserve is slowly dwindling. The crops that they have they’re...they’re mysteriously being tear gassed at night. They’ve complained repeatedly to the authorities but, nothing’s come out of it.” 

Cyra leans back, mind running a millions miles an hour.

“We need your help to file a lawsuit against Eternia.”

Cyra’s eyes snap to Mara. 

Cyra shuts down her whirring thoughts and straightens up, summoning her lawyer brain to take the reins.

“How about I give you a run down of how I’d usually handle this kind of lawsuit? 

I’d go for a civil lawsuit in this case--considering the situation, we could probably even file for a class action. Then, we need to have evidence for ‘Factual Statements of Allegations’ to file a complaint. 

That basically means collecting evidence to prove that they’re more than just allegations: they’re _facts._ That Eternia _is_ responsible for the deterioration of the plaintiff’s land, and therefore have to compensate the affected.

Eternia will then choose to either answer, or they’ll ask for a motion to dismiss. Considering Eternia is a powerful company, we need credible evidence that proves the allegations made by the plaintiffs are legally valid, so a judge can’t dismiss the allegations. 

When the case moves forward, we will need a couple of witnesses. At least one plaintiff has to testify, but are _you_ willing to go up on the stand as well?”

Mara looks frightened for a moment, before she gathers her resolve and nods firmly.

“Yes, I will. I’ll do anything in my power to make sure this lawsuit succeeds.”

Cyra feels a brief flash of pride for the woman in front of her, and continues to explain.

“We will move forward to a process we call discovery. 

It’s basically a period of time where we gather evidence to support our case and possibly destroy the defendant’s defense. 

Either the plaintiff or the defendant can file for a ‘Motion of Summary Judgement’. 

It is essentially a trial on paper: a way of ending a lawsuit before it has to go through a physical trial. 

If a ‘motion for a summary judgement’ is denied, that will initiate pre-trial motions that (if they aren’t denied) can lead to a trial.

Trials are _incredibly_ expensive and drag on. However, only 2% of lawsuits make it to trial, as most are either dismissed at the motion or have already settled.”

She takes a moment to breathe and take a sip of her cooling cappuccino, letting her words sink into Mara.

“Fair warning, if we lose the case, Eternia may attempt to file a defamation claim. It will have Legal Sufficiency so we may not get to ask for a motion to dismiss. If Eternia wins _that_ lawsuit, it will cost the people who have already had their lands poisoned.”

___________________________________________________________________________

Catarina struts into the Fukuhara garden with as much swagger her 5 year old body will allow.

She had dashed back home to make an outfit change. If she was going to settle the argument between Adora and Glimmer, she had to dress like a lawyer.

So naturally, she’s wearing her mami’s lawyer clothes! She’s the best lawyer Catarina knows! 

(And the only one she knows, but that doesn’t matter!) 

“What.” Glimmer looks at her with wide eyes. “Are you wearing?!”

Catarina puffs up her chest as she swaggers over to her, unknowingly dragging Cyra’s court gown through the mud.

“I’m a lawyer! So I have to wear lawyer clothes! _Duh_.” Catarina rolls her eyes at Glimmer’s ignorance.

“And look!” With that she whips up the court gown, revealing Cyra’s treasured red suit jacket. The crimson hostage muddied at the bottom. “Now I’m a double lawyer!”

Catarina grins evilly.

  
  


“Court...is in _session_.”


	7. Shot through the heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of heart attacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back at my bullshit eheheheh.
> 
> Also ya'll, please just leave comments, even if it is incoherent screaming, I need the serotonin. Also I recognize all of yalls names and it warms my heart.
> 
> Again, big thanks to SowLiz for the translations!
> 
> Te mostaré, estúpida- I'll show you, stupid  
> Deberíamos casarnos- we should get married  
> Para mi hermosa esposa- for my beautiful wife

Mara quietens as she digests Cyra’s warning, expression troubled as she gnaws on her lower lip.

Cyra lets her be, taking the time to drink her cappuccino and look around the cafe. 

It’s crowded, but not to the point where it feels overwhelming. It’s balanced enough to feel cosy and welcoming. Everyone is exuding a relaxed, easygoing and friendly aura. 

Cyra loves it. 

_‘I have to bring Catarina here, as a treat or for bonding.’_ She thinks to herself. _‘Maybe I’ll bring her after her first day in kindergarten.’_

She is brought out of her musings by an enthused exclamation of “ _Mara dearie!_ ”

____________________________________________________________________________

“Listen up, people of the court!” An authoritative Catarina demands, standing on an upturned sand bucket.

“Today, we are discussing a very important thing. Tag...or _hide and seek_. State your cases.”

“I wanna play tag ‘cause it’s more fun!” Glimmer crosses her arms and glares at Catarina.

Adora, noticing, glares at Gimmer.

“Tag is stupid. Hide, hide and seek is better.” Her eyes narrow at Glimmer, who is resolutely not looking at Adora.

“Adora! You can’t use the word stupid! It’s a bad word!” Catarina glances around nervously for any adults who may have heard Adora. 

The coast is clear. She sighs in relief.

“That’s a stupid reason!” Glimmer screeches, turning to face Adora.

_Oh no._ Catarina panics, looking around once more for any parental figures in the vicinity.

Adora’s lip curls up in anger.

“Te mostaré, estúpida!” She slams a fist into her hand.

Glimmer isn’t fazed.

Catarina feels sweat dripping down her back. 

She’s too young to see a murder happen. 

Will she also get killed? 

She saw the murder happen, she’s the only witness left. 

Oh no. 

She doesn’t want to leave her mami alone!

And what about Melog! 

She hasn’t even started kindergarten yet!

“Deberíamos casarnos.” Catarina blurts out.

Adora’s head snaps towards her.

“Bien.” She shrugs easily.

“We-- we can play house! Or something like that! I can, I can cook! We wouldn't need to fight then because Glimmer would be our--” 

Catarina stops, she gapes at Adora with wide eyes.

“Did you just say _yes?!_ ”

____________________________________________________________________________

Mara’s head snaps towards the voice that called her.

Mara stands and gives a big friendly smile to-- oh.

The opening bars of ‘ _You give love a bad name_ ’ by Bon Jovi begin to croon through the speakers.

The woman walking towards them in slow motion is _breathtaking_. 

Magenta pink hair. That’s the first thing she notices. 

As her eyes travel downwards she meets eyes so dark, she can’t see her pupils. 

_An angel’s smile is what you sell..._

Her lips, a bright red, are curved into a joyful smile. 

It strikes Cyra just between the fourth and fifth rib.

_Oh, you’re a loaded gun, yeah_

Her eyes continue their descent. A stark white, pressed button up. The sleeves rolled up to mid forearms, exposing smooth skin. 

Her eyes drag back up briefly and she chokes. 

The first three buttons are undone. She can see the columns of her neck and her, her _collar bones_.

_Oh gods, her collar bones and her forearms. HER COLLARBONES AND HER FOREARMS. HERCOLLARBONESANDHERFOREARMS._

Her thoughts are, she’s never had a coherent thought _in her fucking life_.

_The damage is done..._

_The damage is indeed very much fucking done._

She’s crying inside. 

_I play my part and you play your game_

Cyra doesn’t know if this woman is a blessing or curse. 

She can’t even remember her own name over the loud beating of her heart. 

She’s wearing black, _tight_ jeans that hug her legs perfectly and _fuck, those high heels._

What this woman makes her feel should be _illegal_. 

She’s fairly certain that this is an attempted murder.

_Paint your smile on your lips_

The woman has reached their table. A wide smile directed at Mara as they embrace.

Cyra is fairly certain she’s hyperventilating.

_Blood red nails on your fingertips_

Cyra catches a flash of red, _red nail polish matching her lipstick,_ as the woman turns to face her.

The woman says something to her but Cyra, who has been disarmed by her easy smile, can only nod dumbly.

Warmth encompasses her then, it takes her an embarrassing second to realize that the woman _was hugging her oh fuckfuckfuck._

_Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye_

A cool pair of lips press against her cheek.

She. 

She is dead.

She’s very sure she’s dead.

She feels sad that she’s orphaned Catarina due to her untimely demise by a pretty lady.

____________________________________________________________________________

“Say yes to _what._ ” Glimmer’s snappish tone brings Catarina back to the present.

“We’re, we’re getting married.” Catarina says faintly, still in shock.

“ _You’re what?!_ ” Glimmer was transcending pissed and entering _apocalyptic._

“Why--” Glimmer stops. Her eyes narrow as she mulls something over.

Adora plucks a nearby flower and presents it to Catarina. 

Catarina reaches for it. Her hands are batted away. Catarina considers a divorce, but then Adora steps closer and very carefully places it in her hair.

“Para mi hermosa esposa!” Adora beams at Catarina, who for some reason turns red.

“I wanna be maid of honour!” Glimmer’s voice, a little more amicable as it cuts through the moment.

“Alright.” Catarina says easily, feeling a little warm for some reason. Maybe it was her mami’s coat and gown.

Angella chooses that moment to check up on them, failing to hide her amusement at the scene before her.

“What are you kids up to?”

“Adora and Catarina are getting married!” Glimmer exclaims excitedly.

“Is that so?” Angella is trying her _damndest_ not to smile.

“Yes!” Adora nods enthusiastically, grabbing Catarina’s hand for emphasis. The latter smiles shyly at Angella.

“Well, where are you both going to live after your marriage?” Angella stifles her laugh, trying her best to come across as supportive.

“Wait.” Catarina’s eyes widen. “I have to live somewhere else after I’m married?!”

_I can’t leave my mami after I get married! She has no-one to love her! She’s too lonely!_

Miles away, Cyra sneezes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also [Inbetween](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inbetween/pseuds/Inbetween) , my treasured friend of many stupid years had the fucking gall to promote my fic when she posted hers. So here's me taking revenge, check her out she writes about 2012 "avengers are a family" feels and quality loki and peter bonding, I beta for her and she does the same for this fic. <3 Love you~


	8. A friend of Mara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are all friends of Mara ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, there's a terrible heat-wave where I live so the motivation to write is like 'eh'
> 
> (Plus the semi-regular existential dread showed up and isn't leaving ahah)
> 
> Since I'm machine and possibly stupid I continue to write because I too, like Adora can't take a fuckin break.
> 
> Also when I read fanfic I see yalls names and I'm like "!!!!!" 
> 
> Thank you SowLiz for the translations!!!
> 
> "Para la boda"- For the wedding
> 
> “Quizàs ella està feliz por la boda.”- Maybe she's happy for the wedding
> 
> As always, keep the comments goin!!!!

The pink haired woman steps back after a moment, and smiles warmly at Cyra.

Cyra, who had just regained a little control over herself, promptly loses it again.

She snaps back into focus when she notices Mara and the beautiful woman are staring at her in concern.

“So,” _Fuck_ , her voice _cannot be cracking right now, why dios?_ She clears it in hopes of not seeming like a hormonal teenager. “Are you a friend of Mara’s?”

The woman looks amused while Mara looks like she’s questioning Cyra’s sanity. 

_‘Fuuuuuck, they must have already covered this while I was being a gay disaster.’_ Cyra cries. _‘If mami was here she would have eaten me alive.’_

“Sorry, if I seem a little out of it. I’ve got an energetic 5 year old at home.” Cyra tries to laugh it off. 

_‘I’m so sorry for tarnishing your good name like this Catarina. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me someday.’_

Mara seems slightly appeased and the unnamed woman extends her hand towards Cyra.

“I’m Razz. You can say I’m a friend of Mara’s.” There was a twinkle in Razz’s eye that Cyra _refused_ to look into, lest she wanted Catarina to be orphaned.

“Cyra Sanchez.” _Ugh. Could she sound any breathier?_

“Razz is actually one of the people affected by Eternia, we met when I visited the site.” Mara explains, effectively cutting through Cyra’s second spiral.

_Wait. Razz might become my client? Welp time to slam brakes on the gay, it was good while it lasted. Sorry pretty lady, I can’t break my morals._

“I uh, I followed your case on Prime Industries. You were amazing.” Razz confesses, something like awe and hope colouring her voice. 

Prime Industries was a recent case of hers. She had almost forgotten all the fanfare and paparazzi that had come with the trial and consequent damning of the company. 

She smiles at Razz, unwilling to dwell on that particular case.

“Why don’t I tell you what I’ve told Mara?”

Razz accepts and takes a seat next to Mara.

____________________________________________________________________________

Angella does not know how she manages to keep a straight (Bah!) face when her “daughter-in-law” frets about having to move out. 

“I can’t leave her, she’ll be too lonely!” Catarina cries as she faces Angella with a pleading look.

Angella might have busted a rib with how hard she has to stifle her sudden wave of laughter.

“I’m sure,” A steadying breath. “You guys can work something out.”

“I will live with Catarina!” Adora declares, holding their joined hands up for emphasis.

“Hey! You’re _my_ sister, I want us to live together!” Glimmer is _dangerously_ close to blowing up.

This time, Angella can’t help the wheeze that escapes her. 

All three kids stop immediately, looking over to Angella, who is now bent over and wheezing hysterically.

“Mom! Are you okay?!” Glimmer dashes to Angella’s side, worriedly putting a hand on her forehead. 

“I’m.” _Wheeze._ “I’m _great_ sweetheart.” 

Micah chooses that exact moment to step out.

“Who wants cake?” He yells in a rousing manner.

Adora instantly lightens up

“Para la boda?!” 

Micah’s face goes from joyful, to confused, to worried when he spots Angella wheezing uncontrollably.

“Uhhh.” He says eloquently

Angella wheezes harder. 

____________________________________________________________________________

“Are you going to take the case?” Razz asks after Cyra’s explanation. 

Cyra mulls it over. 

_‘ “Do not ever hesitate to do the good thing mija.” ‘_ Her mami had told her when she passed the bar. _‘ “The bad people will come a dime a dozen, fight for the good ones, always.” ‘_

If she wanted Catarina to be a good person who fought for the good, she had to lead by example. 

“I am.” She nods determinedly.

“I’m willing to testify against Eternia.” Razz says, a fiery look in her eyes. “I’m not going to stand by as they destroy my home.”

Cyra smiles at her.

“I will need you guys to swing by my office and make this official.” 

She gives them her new firm’s address and proposes an appointment of two days later.

When they agree she smiles at them and stands.

“If there’s nothing else to discuss, I must head out. I have a 5 year old waiting impatiently to tell me every detail of her day.”

Razz grins at that and Mara shakes her head.

“No, there’s nothing else. I think it’s best not to keep kids of that age waiting.”

Cyra is stopped as she tries to put down a couple bills to cover her cappuccino.

“Oh! No, no. Cyra I’ve got it. _I_ invited you here, I’ll pay for it.” Mara put down a couple bills of her own.

“Oh no, I can’t let you do that. I have got it really--” Cyra tries to put her own bills down and return Mara’s to her. 

Mara then in turn slides Cyra’s bills back and puts hers down.

“Oh to have two pretty women fight to pay the bill. What a dream.” Razz sighs dreamily.

Cyra blushes as Mara snorts ungracefully.

“You _know_ I have a wife Razz.”

“Yes, and said wife will probably also enjoy this daydream.” Razz grins back at Mara.

Huh, so Cyra’s gaydar was accurate. 

“What about you Cyra, got anyone who’d also appreciate this visual?” Razz asks. It’s asked innocently enough but there’s a certain undertone to it that Cyra can’t, _won’t_ look in to.

“Uh, not really no, no girlfriend or wife at the moment who’d enjoy it.”

Both Mara and Razz light up immediately.

“Three woman loving women walked into a bar. That’s it, that’s the joke.” Razz says wryly.

“Birds of a feather and whatnot.” Mara’s grin is so bright and Cyra is fucking _delighted_ at this turn of fate.

“What about you Razz?” She asks, and convinces herself that it’s purely for _politeness sake._

“No-one yet dearie.” There's a pleased twinkle in her eye. 

Cyra forces down her blush.

“Oh! Do you want my phone number incase of an emergency?” 

“That would be really helpful, yes.” Mara nods and hands over her phone, Razz shortly after.

“See you around Sanchez.” She winks at Cyra as she leaves the cafe.

…

_Fuck._

____________________________________________________________________________

Angella had managed to calm down for exactly one second, before breaking down in giggles.

Micah is seriously worried for his wife’s sanity.

“Quizàs ella està feliz por la boda.” Adora offers at Micah’s bewildered expression.

At this Angella giggles harder.

“Your, your what?” 

“We’re getting married Mr. Micah!” Catarina pipes in helpfully.

“Just Micah’s fine dear--” He stops. “Did you say that you both are getting married…?”

“Yes!” Adora cheers.

Angella begins to turn slightly red.

Micah understands her plight now.

“When.” He clears his throat. “When is the big day?”

Adora and Catarina look at each other.

“Now--”

“When my mami gets here--”

They both say at the same time. They stop, then Catarina elaborates.

“We’re getting married today when my mami gets here!”

Glimmer gasps suddenly.

“Wait! Both of you have to wear white if you’re getting married! It’s the rules!” With that she drags Adora off, presumably for more wedding appropriate attire.

Catarina shrugs at Micah in lieu of an answer and runs back to her home to change.

Micah, out of the sight of impressionable children, gives in to his barely suppressed laughter, joining his wife on the slightly muddy garden.

“We,” Angella giggles. “ _Have_ to document this wedding Micah, we have to.” She breaks off into giggles again.

“It’d be a crime not to.” He agrees.

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra has barely parked her car before Catarina is careening right into Cyra’s car door.

“Whoa! Missed me mija?” She asks, narrowly catching her before she could get injured.

“No time to explain, come on!” She tugs on Cyra’s sleeve and pulls her towards the Fukuhara house.

“What? No ‘hello’ or ‘I missed you so much mami!’?” Cyra asks sarcastically, before taking notice of Catarina’s fancy white button up and black slacks. “What’s with the get up mija?”

“I’m getting married of course!”

Cyra blinks. Once, twice. 

“ _What?!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check [Inbetween](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inbetween/pseuds/Inbetween) out. Pretty cool writer when she ain't takin my adverbs and italics away.


	9. Adora and Catarina Fukuhara-Sanchez

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shenanigans and weddings. And wedding shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight so a couple of things. 
> 
> Sorry for not updating for a while but you must know that it KILLED me not to update. I was dying. But hey heres 2k words so?
> 
> Life kinda just, idk was being life. It's one of those moments when you dont have anything going on but cant find a single fucking free moment. I also had a lot of guests.
> 
> And!!! My fucking chronic migraines decided to say hello. I was ready to cut a bitch.
> 
> I'm dropping hints about certain things in my chapters, keep am eye out ;)
> 
> If yall wanna talk to me I do not mind at all. I dont bite.
> 
> This is also unbeta-ed so gl to yall.
> 
> Anywhos, special thanks to SowLiz for providing me with translations!
> 
> “–Y,y su pelo era tan brillante! Quiero un caballo como ese! Mencioné cómo se mantenía tan alto y con un aspecto genial?” - And, and the hair was so shiny! I want a horse like that! Did I mention how it stood so tall and cool looking?
> 
> “Hey, listas para casarse?”- hey, ready to get married?
> 
> “Claro, por qué estaríamos aquí si no lo estuviéramos?”- Of course, why would we be here if we weren't? 
> 
> “Sólo me aseguro.” - Just making sure
> 
> “Cuídala.”- take care of her
> 
> “Espera! Tenemos que besarnos! Lo ví en la tele.”- Wait! We have to kiss! I've seen it on tv.
> 
> “Muerte antes que el deshonor!” - Death before dishonour!

Catarina rolls her eyes at Cyra.

“Me and Adora are getting married!”

“Adora and I.” Cyra corrects her on autopilot, before Catarina’s words sink in to her.

“When, when did you both decide to get married?” Cyra asks carefully.

“This afternoon! I asked her so she wouldn’t kill Glimmer!”

What can Cyra even say to that?

Cyra doesn’t get the opportunity to as they spill into the Fukuhara garden.

The garden has been decorated to look more suitable for a wedding. Streamers, chairs, balloons and a...wedding arch?

Glimmer, clad in a sparkly, bright purple dress is bossily directing Micah to place flowers in the arch. Micah himself is in a tux.

Adora, who was in a gorgeous cream dress, sits prettily on a chair. Her hair is done into a half updo and she is examining her nails, which Cyra guesses have nail polish on them.

She spots Angella walking towards her, looking _incredibly_ amused. Angella herself is wearing a forest green kurta. It’s paired with a patterned cream and green shalwar. There’s a mustard and gold dupatta wrapped around her, and a camera slung around her neck. 

“Good afternoon Cyra, I see that you’re here for the wedding.” Angella seems a second away from laughing.

Catarina, who seemingly loses interest in Cyra as she’s gotten her to the venue, skips over to where her bride-to-be is seated.

Cyra grips Angella’s shoulders and brings their faces close.

“What,” Cyra begins, on the verge of either tears or hysteria. “The _fuck_ is happening?” 

She _can’t_ lose her baby girl so soon.

Angella’s lips start quivering with barely repressed laughter.

“Our kids are getting married. And having fights over where to live. I think they’re also looking into adoption,or at least considering it.”

Cyra just lets out a pathetic whimper, hands slipping from Angella’s shoulders. Her baby girl is growing up way too fast.

“There there.” Angella pats her back consolingly, then slings an arm around Cyra’s waist, leading her to the “refreshments table”. 

It’s a fold up lawn table covered with a sparkly bedsheet. There’s snacks and drinks placed haphazardly on it.

There’s a half eaten packet of cookies, a store bought cake with ‘congratulations’ written on it in green frosting, bowls full of chips, a plate of mochi’s, a bowl of kheer, apple juice boxes, a carton of orange juice, a bottle of bubbled grape juice and… a box of sparklers?

Angella lets go of Cyra to pour her a glass of grape juice. Cyra knocks it back. 

“Another.” Her voice is raspy from suppressed tears.

Angella looks at her in concern.

“Easy there, this stuff is strong. Are you sure?”

Cyra looks at her with the gaze of a woman with nothing left to lose.

“The pain from the bubbles drowns the pain inside. Hit me.”

This time Angella doesn’t refuse her. She leans in to whisper.

“I’ve got a box of milk inside if you need the strong stuff. I’m only allowing you one glass though.”

Cyra sighs as she swirls the carbonated grape juice in her glass.

“I’ll work myself to it. I had a cappuccino today.”

At Angella’s affronted gasp she winces at her misstep.

“Cyra Penelope Sanchez! You are lactose intolerant, you can’t be having milk so casually!” SHe takes a deep breath. “Did you take a lactaid pill at least?”

When Cyra doesn’t answer and refuses to look Angella in the eye, she sets her mouth into a hard line.

“That’s it, you’ve officially lost milk privileges.” Angella snaps at her, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Wha-Hey! That’s not fair! I need it!” 

Angella grips Cyra’s hands with a pleading look on her face.

“Cyra, love, please. You need to go to milk’s anonymous. You’re tearing this family apart.”

They both look at each other for a moment before breaking down in laughter, leaning against each other for support.

“Should we really wonder where the kids get their theatrics from?” Cyra questions breathlessly.

“What are you talking about? We are perfectly composed and mature.” Angella snorts.

Cyra goes to respond but she spies something shiny in Adora’s hands. Oh no. That was. That was _glitter._

“Angella.” She starts fearfully. “They-- they have _glitter_ Angella oh god--”

Both Cyra and Angella are only able to watch in horror as Adora throws the glitter up, encompassing both Catarina and her thoroughly.

Cyra is tearing up. That glitter will never get out. It will infiltrate her house and spread.

Besides her, Angella lets out a sob, hands shakily picking up her camera to shoot the scene.

“It is August 22nd, Adora’s and Catarina’s wedding day and,” She takes a steadying breath. “They’ve just gotten glitter on themselves, the aftermath is going to be horrible.”

Adora whips out another container of glitter.

Cyra is full on crying now. 

Adora takes out 3 more containers.

“Where is she even stashing them?” Cyra asks, voice aghast and barely louder than a whisper.

Angella brings the camera to face Cyra.

“This, this is the face of a long suffering mother whose mischievous child is going to bring her hell with all the glitter. This is also my face. Except this one’s way cuter.”

Cyra clasps her hands close to her chest and bats her eyelashes at the camera.

“Stop, you’re going to make me blush.” She croons in a sickly sweet tone.

“Mom! Aunt Cyra!” Glimmer materialises next to them, hands on hips with a stern look. “Don’t just stand there! Today’s a wedding!” She walks off, angrily muttering to herself.

Angella barely represses her smirk, turning to face Cyra, only to find her shell shocked.

“Holy--holy shit.” Cyra breathes out, meeting Angella’s concerned eyes. “She called me _aunt._ ”

Angella’s eyes widen slightly, before she pats Cyra’s shoulder. 

“We all knew the time would come. Especially since you fed her your tiramisu.”

“My nephews and nieces are most probably going to fight Glimmer.”

“She can take them.” Angella’s confident tone makes Cyra smile. 

“Come on. I think that your lady killer daughter is ready to steal my baby girl.” She offers an arm to Angella and they walk towards the chairs. 

Said lady killer was chattering animatedly to Catarina about a horse she saw on tv, absentmindedly fidgeting with the empty glitter containers. 

“–Y,y su pelo era tan brillante! Quiero un caballo como ese! Mencioné cómo se mantenía tan alto y con un aspecto genial?”

“Hey, listas para casarse?” Cyra smirks at the two.

“Claro, por qué estaríamos aquí si no lo estuviéramos?” Adora looks at her, confused.

“Sólo me aseguro.” Cyra replies, a little confused but she lets it slide.

“Ladies.” Micah interjects softly, amusement twinkling in his eyes. “Everything is set up. The brides, would you like to be walked down?” 

“I’m going with my mami!” Catarina exclaims, hopping down to grab Cyra’s hand.

Cyra’s heart swells as she tries to push down her tears. Her hija was growing up. A little too quickly, oh gods she was growing up.

“Yes!” 

Her spiraling thoughts are broken by Adora’s enthused yell. Micah has hoisted her on to his shoulders.

“Onwards! Hit it Glimmer!” Micah yells, rushing towards the “altar”. Adora giggles wildly.

A rock version of ‘Here comes the bride’ starts playing. 

Cyra blinks.

“Guess I’ll be the marriage officiant.” Angella shrugs as she walks over to Micah and Adora, still recording.

Cyra looks down to her impatient daughter. 

“Ready mija?” She asks, forcing her voice not to waver. She has to remind herself to remain strong for Catarina.

“Yeah mami.” Catarina smiles at her. 

They go to take a step but are stopped by an angry purple flash. 

“Wait!” She scowls at them. “I have to throw flowers first!”

She turns and enthusiastically sprays the path with flowers.

Catarina doesn’t wait for Glimmer to be done, tugging Cyra along as soon as Glimmer’s a few steps ahead of them.

Cyra takes Catarina to Adora with tears in her eyes. 

“Cuídala.” She chokes out as she reaches an excited Adora.

Adora just grins at her, enthusiastically grabbing Catarina’s hand.

Cyra stares at them for a moment, lip quivering. Micah gently slides an arm around her shoulders and steers her to the chairs. Micah points the camera at the arch, Glimmer bouncing at his right.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join Adora Fukuhara and Catarina Sanchez in matrimony.” Angella starts, looking around the garden.

“We’re going to be Catarina and Adora Fukuhara-Sanchez.” Catarina whispers to Angella.

Cyra’s tears start flowing. Her daughter is getting married!

“What’s matrimony?” Glimmer asks Micah.

“Marriage.” Cyra chokes out between her tears.

Micah pats her back comfortingly, and offers her a tissue.

She takes it and blows into it loudly. 

“Shhh! They’re having a wedding!” Glimmer shushes Cyra crossly.

Catarina and Adora keep staring into each other’s eyes, making funny faces.

Cyra cries harder.

“If there is anyone who objects to the union of Adora and Catarina Fukuhara-Sanchez, speak now or forever hold your peace.” 

Angella pauses, then continues after no-one speaks up.

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you wife and wife.” 

Micah and Glimmer erupt in cheers while Cyra sobs into her tissue. Her reinita is married!

“Espera! Tenemos que besarnos! Lo ví en la tele.” Adora interjects, Catarina nodding along.

“It’s true I’ve seen it too!” 

Angella and Micah shrug at each other. Cyra is unreachable, too preoccupied by her tears. 

Catarina and Adora take it as an ‘okay, sure’ and step closer to each other. 

It’s brief. A peck on the lips. 

They giggle as they separate and immediately drop into exaggerated ninja poses.

“ _Hi-yah!_ ” Adora tries to aim a kick at Catarina. 

Catarina drops down and rolls behind Adora, jabbing behind her knee.

Adora’s knee buckles but she swings around on one knee and tackles Catarina.

They both tumble on the muddy garden and roll around, fighting for dominance.

Angella stands there, shocked at this turn of events. 

Micah raises his camera and gleefully records the unfolding chaos. 

Glimmer is throwing flowers at them from a distance.

“She’s-- she’s _married!_ ” Cyra cries.

“You do know it isn’t real right?” Micah looks at her in concern.

Cyra doesn’t know what to do with that revelation. So she cries harder.

Adora lets out a victorious yell as she pins a frantically thrashing Catarina.

“I win!” She yells.

“Win what mija?” Micah asks, not even bothering to stifle his laughter.

“I’m a ninja wife!”

“Yes, yes darling. You are indeed a ninja wife. What is Catarina then?” Angella is _shaking_ with her need to laugh.

“Ninja wife?” Adora stares at her like it should be completely obvious that they’re ninja wives.

“Time for cake!” Glimmer yells, running to the refreshments table.

Adora moves off Catarina to let her stand up. When she does she grabs her hand and they both skip over to where the cake is.

“Are you gonna be okay?” Micah asks a sobbing Cyra.

She nods. 

“Ye-yeah. I just. Need a minute.” She exhales shakily. 

Cyra puts on her game face and stands. She’s okay. Her daughter is not actually married. She’s got this.

She strides towards the refreshments table, her shoulders light.

Adora and Catarina cut the cake with unbridled glee.

They feed each other a piece.

….Feed is a strong word, they smash cake in each other's mouth and seem content.

Cyra manages to enjoy a piece too. Even if Micah smears frosting against her cheek. She retaliates by getting it on his luscious locks. Angella dumps a container of glitter over both of their heads, looking entirely too satisfied.

Cyra and Micah barely need to look at each other to come to an agreement. 

Cyra separates a good chunk of frosting from the cake while Micah tackles his wife to the floor. He then uses the worst weapon known to humankind. 

He tickles her.

Angella _shrieks_.

Cyra takes advantage of Angella’s prone form and smears as much frosting as she can on Angella’s face.

“I’ll save you!” Adora yells as she valiantly tries to defend her helpless mother.

What she does is trip over.

“Que?!” She looks over to Glimmer with betrayed eyes. Glimmer smirks at her.

“Muerte antes que el deshonor!” 

Adora gasps in outrage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angella's outfit cause it is beautiful and I love it 
> 
> Yall wanna know where i got the inspo for the wedding? [Wedding](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaDxRqWeoog) Please watch it.


	10. No, you aren't going to jail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I live! With a gift of 4k in hand!
> 
> School has started, very disgusting.
> 
> Razz and Cyra were actually going to kiss in this chapter👀👀 But my beta said no, we shaved off like 2k to reuse heh.
> 
> And I keep getting baby fever but like, I'm way too young for those. (I even have names, disgusting)
> 
> I keep talking about cuddle toys but I've never had one or liked one.
> 
> Tik tok's algorithm is getting too real smfh
> 
> As always, special thanks to SowLiz for translating!
> 
> "Por mi propia hermana" - by my own sister
> 
> "No hay problema" No problem
> 
> "Gracias a Dios" Thank God

Catarina chooses that moment to charge, eyes locked on her mother. No mercy to be seen in her eyes.

Glimmer, having expected this, trips Catarina too.

Catarina’s battle cry cuts off sharply as she trips and falls across Adora, who is still looking at Glimmer with a wounded look in her eye.

Cyra and Micah snicker at the kids, continuing to torture Angella. 

Angella in turn is giggling too hard to call for help.

“Por mi propia hermana.” Adora shakes her head sadly, still on the ground and under her wife.

Catarina pats her head consolingly, perfectly content laying on top of Adora.

Glimmer smiles serenely at Adora, pulling out a can of silly string from her dress pocket.

Adora’s eyes widen as she hurriedly scrambles to get up. Catarina squawks in indignation as her wife’s scrambling throws her to the ground.

“I’ve been scammed. I want a divorce.” She says blankly, staring at the sky, limbs splayed out. 

Cyra cackles.

____________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later Adora and Catarina are inseparable, hands permanently joined.

Adora and Glimmer still have silly string sticking to their hair and clothes. Glimmer has a haunted look in her eye.

Angella, who has been recently released, is taking great joy in planning Cyra’s and Micah’s murder. 

She’s cool with being a single parent. 

Plus her daughter-in-law, Catarina is a sweetheart, Angella will feel only joy if she has to raise her.

Cyra and Micah are wisely staying out of Angella’s way, snickering every time they meet each other’s eye.

“Mira! A flower!” Adora gasps over exaggeratedly as Catarina and her bend down to smell the flower. 

As newlyweds they have to inspect everything together. Where else to start than the garden? 

It’s kind of endearing how they traipse around hand in hand and coo over everything. Glimmer occasionally showers them in flowers.

____________________________________________________________________

“Alright you two, time to go home and sleep.” Micah says to Adora and Catarina

Adora clutches Catarin’s hand tighter and shakes her head.

“No.” She says with a stubborn set to her jaw.

“I have to stay with my wife now Micah.” Catarina speaks up, holding their conjoined hands up for emphasis.

“Yes–but–" Micah splutters.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of each other! Glimmer, is our transport ready?” Catarina spares no second glance to Micah, who’s opening and closing his mouth, no noise escaping him.

“Yes, it’s packed with everything. Come with me,” Glimmer says, trying to imitate Angella’s accent, nose held high.

Angella narrows her eyes at Glimmer. 

“I don’t know whether I should be flattered or insulted. I do  _ not _ do that with my nose.”

Cyra barely muffles her laughter and pats Angella’s shoulder.

"There there."

Angella shrugs it off and glares at Cyra.

"Don't think I haven't forgotten about earlier,  _ Sanchez _ ." She hisses, voice getting venomous at the end.

Cyra shoots her a charming smile, gulping minutely.

“Oh come on Angella, it was all in good fun.”

“Uh-huh.” Cyra hates the gleam in Angella’s eyes.

“Here you go!” Glimmer brings out two scooters. They are your standard kiddy scooters. Except these have cans attached to the back and cardboard with messily written ‘Just married!’.

“Bye! We’re gonna go to our house now.” Adora waves at them as Catarina and her board the scooters.

They take off without preamble, leaving three stunned adults behind. 

Glimmer sniffs loudly, bringing a handkerchief to her face.

“They grow up so fast!” She wails.

Micah snaps into action, racing after the surprisingly fast newlyweds.

Angella wordlessly raises her camera.

Cyra is cool as a cucumber. Catarina will be back. How is she so sure? Melog is still in Catarina’s room.

In the distance Catarina raises something above her head.

Cyra’s eyes widen.

Was. Was that Melog?!

“Melog says bye mami!”

Cyra breaks into a dead sprint.

____________________________________________________________________

Cyra works out you know. 

She works out enough that she’s in good condition and that she can show off her arms to the ladies. 

Hell, she’d even started doing weights so she could carry Catarina as much as she wanted.

However.

Chasing two slippery kids on scooters for five blocks is  _ not  _ in her training regime.

_ ‘Perhaps some cardio wouldn’t be all too terrible.’ _ She thinks to herself as she plops down on her couch.  _ ‘But, where will I find the time?’ _

It had taken a great deal of negotiation for Adora and Catarina to even  _ think _ about going back home. They were  _ very _ excited to start a new life together, in a new home.

Their plan of “buying” a home was to walk around and pick a house that they liked.

Cyra snorts. Her mami would get a kick at her cariño’s take on home ownership.

Cyra is inside alone because Catarina had demanded a moment of privacy with her wife before they part for the night.

She’s left Micah to make sure they don’t try to make a break for it.

The front door opens and softly closes a few seconds later.

Footsteps patter towards where Cyra is splayed out on the couch. A moment later a slightly sulky Catarina crawls into her lap.

“Tired mija?” 

Catarina makes a noncommittal noise as she tries to burrow into Cyra. 

“Come on, let’s take a shower before we go to sleep hm?” 

Catarina heaves a deep sigh before she nods against Cyra’s chest.

Cyra stands, her human koala sticking to her, and makes her way to the bathroom.

“You want me to help?” Cyra asks. 

Catarina shakes her head.

“Alright, I’ll get your jammies. Don’t lock the door ‘kay?”

Catarina hums her assent and Cyra walks out of the bathroom. 

Catarina’s favourite thing to wear to bed is a cat onesie. Come winter or summer, she still prefers to wear the onesie Cyra had bought her when Catarina was first adopted. 

Cyra smiles to herself.

That onesie was ridiculously big on Catarina at first, yet she’d refused to part from it. It was still loose on her but she still loved it dearly.

Towel and onesie in hand, Cyra knocks on the bathroom door. She enters when she hears a ‘come in!’. 

She’s just draped the onesie over her shoulder and opened the towel before a dripping Catarina comes crashing into her. Catarina grins up at Cyra, glittery hair plastered to her face. 

Cyra is helpless against that smile. 

She wraps the towel around Catarina and lifts her up, pressing a long kiss on her cheek. Catarina giggles when Cyra lets go with a resounding ‘muah!’. 

She wiggles against her to try and pepper Cyra with kisses.

Cyra lets it happen with a smile. If this were to be her punishment, then she’d gladly commit crime again and again. 

Once they both are satisfied with the amount of affection they shower each other, Cyra dries Catarina off. 

As soon as Catarina’s in her onesie Cyra picks her up and dangles her from her feet. 

She carries her squealing and giggling child to her bedroom and immediately deposits her on her bed.

“What time is it mija?” She asks, voice taking an exciting pitch.

“¡Me Llamo Gabriela!” She cheers.

“That’s right! Get under the covers and I’ll read it to you.” 

Cyra opens the book, and before long Catarina is sound asleep, soft snores escaping her.

Cyra smiles and tucks the covers more securely against her as she cuddles Melog.

“Te amo mija.” She whispers, pressing a soft kiss on her forehead.

She quietly turns the light off, leaving the door open.

She decides to shower herself and have an early night in. (What? She was  _ not _ turning in to a grandma. She just… appreciated the value of a full night's sleep.)   
  
( _ No she wasn’t going to be cranky if she had to stay up later than 9:30, shut up.) _

After the shower she decides to just belly flop on her bed and sleep for 3 days.

She haphazardly throws her day clothes in a corner somewhere and crawls under her covers, ready to recuperate from the day's events.

_ 2 days later _

Cyra stretches as she makes her way to her room. 

Today’s laundry day and she wants to make sure she hasn’t accidentally left any dirty clothes in her closet. 

Adora and Catarina have been inseparable since they got married. They’ll escape into the garden early and come back home late.

Angella and Cyra were sure that they’d cause a gay uprising when they go to kindergarten. They have already educated the kids on the street.

Adora and Glimmer were also attending the same school as Catarina, and in an extreme case of coincidence, they were all in the same class. 

A lazy yawn escapes her as she opens her closet. 

_ ‘Hmm. Clean, clean, clean, cle--  _ what the fuck is that _.’  _ There’s something rumpled at the bottom of the closet and it’s very muddied. 

Cyra’s eyes narrow and she bends down to further inspect it.

Her eyes widen as she recognises the blob for what it is.

_ ‘Was it-- no it couldn’t be.’ _

She picks her court gown up. It unravels and a red cloth falls to the floor.

Cyra stares at it, her breath caught in her throat.

_ ‘No… why. Why the suit? Why dios why? What need is there for such atrocity? Such merciless punishment?’ _

She clutches her beloved red suit jacket to her chest, anguished tears forming in her eyes.

_ ‘Who would do this? Who would commit such blasphemy?’ _

Her eyes snap open.  _ Catarina. _

As much as it hurt her heart to admit it, she was the only one who had access to Cyra’s closet at all times. Now the only question is why.

She stands. It’s time to gather evidence.

  
  


At exactly 2 pm Catarina comes crashing in for a snack.

Cyra knew this would happen.

She prepared especially for this scenario.

So when Catarina veers into the kitchen, she isn’t met with the usual sight of her mami smiling at her. Rather, she sees a muddied lawyer gown and red suit jacket on the kitchen counter.

Her eyes widen. She’d thought she’d gotten away with the crime. 

Right on cue, Cyra materialises from behind the counter. 

“Welcome Miss Catarina Sanchez. Take a seat. Court is in session.” Cyra says mysteriously.

Catarina gulps nervously as she clambers on to a bar stool.

Cyra clasps her hands behind her back and begins pacing.

“Today, the charges against the accused are that she wore my clothes and soiled them  _ and _ neglected to inform me that she had done so.” 

“I--I  _ didn’t. _ ” She stammers, heart pounding, tongue heavy in her mouth. Her hands are slippery. She tries to wipe them against her legs. 

Cyra whirls around, placing her hands on the counter, a predatory smirk on her face.

“Aha! That’s where the accused missteps! You see, I have evidence. Exhibit A.”

And with that she picks up the lawyer gown.

“Jury of the court as you can see, there are tiny muddy handprints on the gown matching the accused. Exhibit B! I have written confessions from all the members of the Fukuhara household that the accused was seen wearing these items of clothing. Her motive was to serve as a lawyer.”

Catarina stares, a lump stuck in her throat. Her heart is racing in her chest and she can’t breathe.  _ Nonononononononoono. She didn’t want to. Nononononnononono. _

“Now, I’m going to condemn Catarina Elena Sanchez for the crime of–”

“ _ I don’t want to go to jail! _ ” Catarina breaks down in tears. She didn’t mean to get it dirty! And she’d meant to tell her mami! She swears!

“Oh mija, no, no. You aren’t going to jail.” She immediately rushes towards Catarina and lays a hand on her shoulder. When Catarina reaches for her, she easily picks her up.

“Did you make my niña cry?!” Her mami’s voice rings from her phone. Cyra had almost forgotten she’d called her mami to witness this.

“Ay mami, I’ll call you back.” She hangs up, clutching Catarina closer.

“I’m so sorry mija I was trying to be funny, I didn’t mean to upset you.” 

Cyra rocks Catarina gently, letting her get it out of her system.

“I, I didn’t mean–" She hiccups, tears welling in her eyes again.

“Hey, hey, I know. Take a deep breath for me mija.” Cyra presses a kiss to the side of her head, internally cursing herself for being so stupid and not recognising the signs.

Catarina takes a shuddering breath.

“Wanna drink water mija?”

When Catarina nods, she goes to fill a glass, Catarina balanced on her hip.

Catarina drinks the water a little haltingly, hiccups threatening to rise with every other breath. 

Once she’s finished drinking it, she hides her face in Cyra’s neck.

“I’m sorry.” She mutters weakly against her skin.

“I’m sorry too mija. I should’ve realised that it was affecting you badly and stopped. I shouldn’t have tried to make an event out of it either. I’m sorry I broke your boundaries and your trust. I’ll try to do better in the future. You don’t have to forgive me or accept my apology right away okay? Take your time.”

“Okay.” She whispers.

“We will have to revisit this situation.” When Catarina tenses, she adds. “Not now of course. Right now we’ll take time and cool off. What do you want to do mija?”

“Wanna stay here. With you. Can you tell Adora I’m not coming back?” 

“Of course mija.” She picks her phone up.

There are several texts from her mami but Cyra ignores them for the time being. She’ll look at them later.

There’s a text from Micah.

**Great Hair 2:03**

_ Laptophistory.img _

I think Angie might be trying to kill me?????

Why else would she have articles on how to be a single parent open?????

**Infant Lawyer 2:09**

Heh, I’ll provide you counselling later.

Can you tell Adora that Catarina’s not coming back out?

**Great Hair 2:09**

Sure.

Everything alright?

**Infant Lawyer 2:10**

Yeah, I’ll tell you later. 

With that she shuts off her phone and presses another kiss to Catarina’s head.

“Can we sit on the sofa and watch something?” She asks softly.

“Sure mija.” 

“Can we get Melog too?” 

“Of course.” After a detour to retrieve Melog from Catarina’s room, they both settle down on the sofa. 

Cyra puts  _ Kipo and the Wonderbeasts _ on and runs a hand through her hair.

_ ‘I love you mija. _ ’ She thinks, guilt making her chest ache.  _ ‘And I’m so sorry. _

  
  
  


After a couple of episodes Catarina shifts to face Cyra.

“I forgive you mami. And I’m sorry.” 

Cyra smiles at her, running a hand through her hair.

“Thank you for accepting my apology mija. I forgive you too. Do you want to talk about what happened earlier?” She keeps her tone light, leaving the choice to Catarina.

Catarina thinks this over for a moment, and nods.

“Can you tell me what scared or upset you earlier?”

Catarina looks away, chewing on her lip.

“It’s just, you were acting so serious and using big words like abuelita does in court and it scared me. And, and you were making a weird face. Like the one you make when tia Gina makes tio Frankie do the chicken dance when he speaks.”

Cyra mulls her words over carefully.

“Thank you for telling me. I’ll try to make it clear when I’m joking around. I love you mija. Can we talk about why you borrowed my clothes?”

“ Adora and Glimmer were fighting and I thought we could solve it like grown up arguments. In court. So I took your clothes ‘cause I wanted to be you since you’re great at it! And if I wore more of your clothes then I’d be a double lawyer! And a better lawyer!”

Cyra nods slowly.

“I get your reasoning mija but I wish you’d told me, so I could’ve cleaned my clothes. You also lied to me about not knowing what happened to my clothes, buuut I think the situation was a little weird huh? How ‘bout we both just talk to each other in the future to avoid this mija?”

“I’ll ask and tell you next time mami.” Catarina looks at her earnestly.

“That’s all I ask mi amor.” She gathers Catarina in her arms and kisses the top of her head.

_ The next day _

“Lo siento mami I didn’t mean to hang up on you and then ignore you. It’s just, I was making up for my fuck up.” Cyra has just called her mom to make up for yesterday and is hoping she’s not too hurt by being shut out yesterday.

“How is mi niña anyway? And how are  _ you  _ feeling? You have a habit of not forgiving yourself.” Her mami says in an entirely casual way. And,  _ ouch _ . Cyra didn’t come here just to be exposed like this.

“She’s fine. I think. We had a talk yesterday after we’d calmed down but, I don’t know. I just feel guilty you know? I let her down. I fucked up. I, I should’ve been better. She cried so much yesterday mami I–” She cuts off, biting back stubborn tears. 

“Cyra.” Her mami begins, voice firm but filled with love. “You made a mistake, yes. But mija, being a parent  _ is _ about making mistakes. You can’t be a perfect parent. You make mistakes and then you  _ learn  _ from them, and you let your child know that you’re  _ human _ . Keep an honest, open line of communication with her and take it by the day. That’ll make you a  _ good  _ parent.”

Cyra breathes in slowly. “Thanks mami.”

“No hay problema. Gracias a Dios that I am filled with infinite knowledge and wisdom because you and your siblings keep having some crisis or the other every week. Every week! Can you imagine?” 

Her mami’s disgruntled tone makes her laugh.

“How’s your quest in wooing  _ Rita. _ ” Cyra teases her mother. 

Rita was her mami’s neighbour and her mother had been infatuated with the other woman since a while. So naturally all the kids had bets going on when she’d make a move. Cyra was partial to December, it invoked all kinds of feelings within old people. So, perfect time. 

“Listen to me. I am Elena Sanchez, a woman of many talents. I just, we have a good thing going on alright? When the time’s right I’ll make a move.” 

“Ay mami, I thought  _ I  _ was supposed to be the useless lesbian in this family.” She goads her, a satisfied smirk on her face.

“I’m a useless bisexual thank you very much. And, don’t flatter yourself, Gabriela takes the award for useless lesbian. Girl can’t tell if someone likes her even if they propose to her. Honestly I don’t know how Cheyenne and her got married.”

“Because Cheyenne has the patience of a saint and drew Gabriela extensive diagrams detailing her feelings.” Cyra snickers, remembering Cheyenne’s lack of artistic skill making stick figures in crude poses.

“And all Gabriela said was ‘neat’. And came home and had a whole panic. We had to call Cheyenne over to assure her that she did in fact wanted to ‘kiss Gabriela tenderly on a moonlit night after it’s just rained’. Which, disgusting, I did  _ not _ need to know their mating rituals.” She groans, with the tiredness of a woman who has dealt with her dumbass kids for far too long.

Cyra cackles at her as she makes her way to the bathroom, intending to drop off some hand towels.

“How did they even start dating?” 

Her mami sighs deeply. 

“Don’t even get me started on that–”

“ _ Catarina what are you doing? _ ”

Catarina looks at her and smiles cutely, continuing what she was doing. 

“Hi mami!” 

“Ay what did the kid do now?” Her mami asks in her ear.

“I’m making a shiv. Look, it’s done!” And true to form, she’s made her toothbrush into a shiv.

Cyra is speechless. She is aghast. Her soul has ascended from this realm. She is completely weightless. If this was a looney tunes show she’d be floating right now.

“Does she have a shiv in her hand?!” Her mami screeches in her ear. Cyra is too checked out to respond.

“Is that abuelita? I wanna talk to her!” Catarina bounds towards her, shiv in hand. Cyra sees it glint under fluorescent lights. She snaps back to her body and holds out a hand for the shiv.

When Catarina hands it over she slips it into her suit’s pocket without a second thought.

“Mija… Why are you making a shiv?” Cyra is  _ lucky _ that her body’s functions haven’t shrivelled up and died.

“In case I go to jail of course!” Catarina replies readily.

“Cyra I think you’re raising a criminal.” Her mami jokes unhelpfully in her ear.

“Mija,  _ mija _ . You aren’t going to jail.” Cyra feels faint.

“I could. How are you so sure?” Catarina looks at her defiantly, putting her hands on her hips for emphasis.

“Oye I think this is how it would’ve been if I adopted you at a younger age.” Her mami laughs in her ear.

Cyra is  _ this _ close to hanging up on her again.

“Why would you go to jail mija?” Cyra asks, trying to figure out her thought process during this… endeavor.

“Because!” And her brow furrows. “Tio Frankie told me to be gay and commit crime. And tio Mateo said that criminals go to jail. But then tia Gina said the trick was to not get caught. But  _ then _ tia Cheyenne said that the trick was to be prepared. So I searched up how to be prepared in prison and it told me to make a shiv!”

Cyra is going murder her siblings and her sister-in-law and she will feel no remorse. Gabriela and Mateo are her only siblings now. Gabriela will forgive her if she waves Catarina in front of her nose. 

Over the phone her mami is choking. Cyra toys with adding her to the list.

“I-” She cuts herself off with a sigh. “You aren’t going to go to jail because you’re five and your tio and tia’s are just messing around.”

“Oh.” Catarina is disappointed she doesn’t get to use her skills.

Her mami is gasping for air. Cyra can’t put her on the kill list because Catarina loves her too much.

“And, we aren’t going to teach our friends how to make a shiv.  _ Right? _ ”

“Right.” If possible Catarina droops even further.

Cyra crouches and kisses her cheek, running a hand through her hair. 

“Here, talk to your abuelita.”

Catarina immediately brightens and starts chattering rapidly as soon as she gets the phone.

Cyra smiles and hangs up the hand towels. She should suggest a dinner soon, with the whole family. It’ll be a madhouse but woe be to whose name gets chosen for this bloodbath.

Catarina lets Elena go fairly quickly. But as soon as she hangs up, Cyra’s phone immediately begins to ring. 

Catarina runs towards Cyra. “Mami! There’s a call for you! It’s someone named Razz!”

_ ‘Razz?’ _ Cyra thinks and immediately her heart jumps. She thanks Catarina as she accepts the call.

“Hey there Sanchez.” Razz drawls, slightly rushed. It instantly brings a blush to Cyra’s cheeks. 

Catarina looks at her quizzically. 

_ ‘No! No, bad Cyra! No gay thoughts for your client! Drop them!’ _

“Hey Razz.”  _ Fuck. Tone down the breathiness. _

Catarina backs away slowly.

“Got a tip. No time. Hop in your car and I’ll explain on the way. I’ll send you coordinates” Razz rushes out, tone giving nothing away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check library_of_crazy221b out. Their fic [countdown](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262742) is pretty good!


	11. Of kisses and regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cw, mentions of a chad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI! IM ALIVE!
> 
> Apologies for taking so long! My mental health kinda tanked and I had school, which kept me busy.
> 
> Also, crushed on a pretty girl in my class and consequently got over her cause she skipped 2 grades and is a tad too young for me to crush on her in good conscience. 
> 
> I also have 3 tests this coming week??? Hasnt even been a month to school????
> 
> Also if there are any grandma's here, if you wish to follow a fic, when you click on one you will see a button named "subscribe" on the top of the page. This handy button gives you an email everytime an author updates a fic! You can even subscribe to authors.
> 
> Ghada- Donkey/ Jackass

Cyra stares at her phone for a moment, before she jerks into action. 

Razz had asked for speed, but first Cyra needed to make sure Catarina was okay with her leaving.

__________________________________________________________________________

Turns out Catarina was _more_ than okay with Cyra leaving because it meant she’d get to play with Adora and Glimmer. Cyra was only a little hurt. Really.

Angella and Micah had been amused and insufferably smug. She despised them.

She’s still grumbling to herself lightly as she pulls in to where Razz had instructed her to come.

She jerks as someone raps on her window. She whirls to face them, eyes murderous--but it’s only Razz, who’s smirking at her.

“How are you, Sanchez?” Razz asks, opening Cyra’s car door for her. Cyra tries to pretend that her heart doesn’t flutter at it.

“I’m good Razz, what about you?” 

“I’m great, come on.” Razz winks at her and reaches for her hand.

Cyra’s heart goes up to her throat. _‘Holymotherfuckingshit!’_

She tries her fucking best to keep her soul in her body as Razz tugs her along, their hands interwined.

“So you remember we mentioned how people kept coming to our land and fucking with it? Well we might catch a live one today.” Razz’s eyes sparkle with mischief. 

Cyra doesn’t know how to handle hearing Razz curse. 

_‘Wait. No! Bad Cyra! Imagine a Chad!’_

Cyra cringes mentally and tastes bile in the back of her throat. _Chads._

“That’s going to be something.” Cyra says, trying to act normal in front of Razz and not like she was going to have a fucking stroke.

Razz just looks back at her with a mischievous smirk. It takes Cyra’s breath away. 

“So this is where we live, and it’s technically a federally protected land, but y’know.” Razz raises a shoulder up in a ‘what can you do’ way. 

“I actually live on the other side of our property, I’ll take you over there sometime.” Razz winks at her. 

Cyra resolutely ignores the flutter in her stomach. “Sheesh, at least buy me dinner first Razz.” She teases weakly.

Razz lets out a surprised laugh. “Touché, but who says I won’t cook for you at home?”

“Mm, pretty smiles don’t really fill my stomach Razz.” Cyra snorts.

Razz stills for a moment, face reddening slightly. “You think I have a pretty smile?” She asks, somewhat bashful.

Cyra’s heart stops as all the blood rushes to her face. “Well, I mean yeah you know. Your smile- yeah, pretty.” 

_‘Fuck. Dios just take me now.’_

_‘Wait, I can’t orphan Catarina. Raincheck on it for now, Dios.’_

Razz’s blush darkens, before she clears her throat and continues leading Cyra.

_Great job Sanchez you’ve made her uncomfortable._

“Okay, so, my aunt lives nearby, and her house is close to the lake. Which gives us a perfect vantage point for the assholes that keep throwing chemicals in it. This is, as you may have noticed, really close to the “outer world”. It’s what, a five minute walk to the street?” 

Razz says,glossing over their previous conversation. Despite that, she can’t quite rid the red in her ears. 

Cyra hums in response. They fall into a comfortable silence until they reach a house a few hundred meters from the lake.

Razz brandishes a key and opens the door with the same amount of flair.

“My aunt isn’t home right now but she’s cool with us using it as a little spy hidey hole.” She says, excitement shining in her eyes.

Cyra huffs out a little laugh, one hand going up to run through her hair before she realizes that her other one is still holding on to Razz’s.

_‘Fuck._ _Okay, Cyra don’t panic. Don’t do anything, if she drops it then that’s that. Her hand is really soft...No! Shush!’_

“Now all that’s left… “ Razz’s eyes glint in the dim light. “...is the prey.”

____________________________________________________________________________

“Hey esposa!” Catarina grins, tackling Adora in a hug.

“Hi!” Adora says, hugging Catarina so tight that she lifts her off the ground.

“ ‘Hi Glimmer, how are you doing Glimmer?’ Oh I’m doing fine, thanks for noticing.” Glimmers huffs as she crosses her arms, a little annoyed.

Catarina releases Adora, pouncing on Glimmer for a hug. 

Adora pouts as her wife leaves her for her sister.

“Hi Glimmer!” Catarina screeches in her ear, just to be annoying. 

“Hi Catarina!” Glimmer yells in her ear, not one to be shown up. 

Adora’s pout deepens as Catarina and Glimmer continue to cling on to each other, before her expression clears and she tackles both of them.

“Now we all hug!” She yells, proud of herself for figuring out a solution.

Catarina and Glimmer groan from under Adora, having had the breath knocked out of them by her hug.

Micah walks in on the scene of three kids squirming on the ground trying to hug each other harder. 

“What do you guys want to do after your… cuddle pile?” Micah asks, smiling goofily.

Glimmer’s head pops up with a gasp.

“Can we watch a movie?!” 

Micah considers it for a moment, before he shrugs. "If the others want to, then sure."

“What kind of movie?” Catarina asks.

“A horse movie.” Adora says without hesitation.

Catarina and Glimmer shrug as a sort of agreement.

“One kid friendly horse movie coming right up! Now if you ladies would be so kind as to follow me to the living room…” He says, leading them to the living room in an over exaggerated manner.

“Where will you all be sitting today madames?” Micah asks, adopting a posh accent and clasping his hands behind him.

“Hmm, in a pillowfort?” Glimmer asks.

“I will see to the technical aspects of that request right away! Do you want popcorn?”

That earns him a resound ‘yes’ from all three kids. He smiles and goes to pop a popcorn bag in the microwave.

While it’s cooking, Micah goes to retrieve sheets and pillows used specifically for this purpose. 

He hums happily to himself as he sets up the chairs to be the structural base for the fort. That’s all he gets to do, as the kids come bounding over, eager to try to make it on their own.

With a chuckle, Micah leaves them to check on the popcorn, sliding his phone out to search up horse movies.

Black beauty seems a reasonable choice to him, kid friendly.

“The refreshments, ladies.” Micah announces as he walks out of the kitchen holding a tray with popcorn and juice.

He has to bite back his smile when he sees the fort they’d made. It’s a wrong move away from becoming a tragedy, the blankets clinging desperately to wobbling chairs. He doesn’t understand how they’d managed to make such an unsound fort, but he’s kind of impressed.

He places the tray in front of them and sets up the movie.

“Where’s Angella, Micah?” Catarina asks as he tries to fix it without burying his children alive.

“Oh she’s gone to work, so I’m here with you kids.” Micah smiles at the sight of Adora, Glimmer and her making a weird cuddle pile. He snaps a quick picture of them. They look like worms.

____________________________________________________________________________

Angella is bored out of her fucking mind.

She loves having her own company and using their resources to make something good but.

She fucking _despises_ confrences.

Sure, they’re informational and give her an insight to how different sectors of the company are running.

But that doesn’t change how _boring_ they are.

It’s even worse when she’s got to deal with investors.

She discreetly pulls out her phone under the table.

**Love of my life💞 2:30**

Micah

Micah

Micahhhh

Micah

M i c a h

M

I

C

A

H

**Simp💍 2:34**

Yes my dearest wife who’s definitely in a meeting right now?

**Love of my life💞 2:34**

I’m boreddd :(

**Simp💍 2:35**

Aww, poor you

_kidscuddling.img_

I’m at home with these sweethearts so 😌

Angella is _enraged_. How could Micah rub it in her face like this?

**Love of my life💞 2:35**

How dare you Micah Fukuhara

Sleep with one eye open I will not be forgetting this terrible crime

**Simp💍 2:36**

_cuddles &movie.img _

Hm? Oh I couldn’t hear you over the very _fun_ movie we’re watching

Angella is going to scream. She’s well transcended the emotion anger and now all she feels is a bloodthirsty need for homicide.

**Love of my life💞 2:36**

I’m very much going to enjoy being a single parent 😊

“Excuse me Ms Fukuhara, am I perchance, _boring_ you?” A voice asks, irritated. 

Angella looks up to find a white old fart glaring at her.

Ugh. He was a possible investor and he ticked off all the wrong boxes in Angella’s book. She was obviously going to boot him from the list after this meeting, well, if he survived it in the first place. 

Guy like him was only gunning for profit and not delivering good and viable products at a reasonable price like their company vowed to, it made Angella itch for her axe.

She merely raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “Pardon me, I was checking up on a pertinent issue.” She says in a very unapologetic tone.

“Such as?” Gosh, this geezer really wanted to get stuffed didn’t he?

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.” She says coolly, and gives him a wide smile, her only thoughts being _‘murder good’_.

____________________________________________________________________________

Stakeouts were relatively boring.

Cyra and Razz had digressed into throwing peanuts in each other’s mouth to pass time.

Both of them had terrible aim.

Cyra almost falls from her chair with the force of her laughter as Razz desperately tries to sneeze to try and dislodge the peanut stuck in her nose.

Of course, because she’s laughing so hard hard she chokes on her peanuts.

Now it’s Razz’s turn to laugh at Cyra’s misery. She snorts so hard that the peanut shoots out of her nose.

It’s dead silent for a moment before they both burst out in laughter again.

Razz runs a hand through her hair, opening her mouth as though she’s going to say something when her gaze freezes on the window.

“Cyra! Cyra oh my god they’re here!” Razz sounds both worried and excited at the same time, nearly vibrating from her nerves.

_‘She looks so adorab- nope. Not at all. Razz looks like a trash panda right now. Mhm.’_ Its not even entirely inaccurate. The woman walked the line between hot and swamp monster.

“What’s the play here, chief?” Cyra asks, saluting her.

Razz turns to look at her, an excited, exhilarated look in her eye. “We wait for them to do their fuckery, and then we “nicely” ask them what they’re doing.” 

Cyra smiles at her, she has a feeling it won't be as easy as Razz thinks. But there’s no harm in giving it a try right?

____________________________________________________________________________

Micah grins as he throws popcorn into his mouth. Antagonising Angie was so fun, she was so easy to rile up and the “punishment” was usually in Micah’s favour.

On screen a horse seems to be giving birth? Micah dismisses it in favour of shoveling more popcorn in his mouth.

_________________________________________________________________________

Glimmer is traumatised. 

How did- Is that how horses are made?!

____________________________________________________________________________

Sir ‘Bitches A Lot’ didn’t like her response which subtly told him to ‘fuck off’.

He did not in fact, fuck off. Instead he started making snide comments.

Angella, being the graceful person she fcuking is, ignores it in order to be able to hug her daughters tonight. She can’t exactly do that locked behind bars.

So she refocuses on the most boring and infuriating meeting that has ever existed.

“And honestly I don’t get what a _woman_ is doing here you know? A man’s job is to stand above his woman and her is to stand above their kids.” Sir ‘Bitches A Lot’ grumbles to his _female_ neighbour.

Angella’s vision is tinted red. 

In her mind, she imagines lifting up the sweaty, greaseball poor excuse of a man by his disgusting salmon coloured tie and _slamming_ him through the table till it splintered. Then she was going to force him to cough down his stupid, worthless _garbage_ documents. And when those IQ damning reports set his insides on fire she was going to calmly and rationally steal his stupid fucking kneecaps, sell them, and give the profits of those terrible kneecaps ad donate them to a trans-led organisation, just to rub it in his stupid wrinkly face.

But she does none of those things.

Instead she turns to him, smile dripping with poisonous saccharine sweetness. 

“Oh are you feeling _emotional_ ? Is it,” She drops her voice to a whisper. “One of _those_ days?”

“Why don’t you take the day off, _sweetheart_.” Angella leans back in her chair, practically spitting the last word out. 

She doesn’t care if it seemed unprofessional or if Sir ‘Bitches A Lot’ threw a hissy fit. She is _vying_ for blood so help her God.

____________________________________________________________________________

  
  


Cyra glances out of the window. Sure enough, there’s someone dumping cans of presumably toxic liquid into the lake.

“Alright, I’m going to film him on the down-low, you keep him talking. You’re good with words.” Razz says, gearing up to open the door,

“What makes you think I’m good with words?” Cyra asks, raising an eyebrow. 

It comes out more flirty than she’d expected and she will like to die now please and thank you.

Razz stills for a moment, eyes confused. “You’re a lawyer?”

Cyra colours a little. She should’ve known, oh motherfucker.

_‘Death. The only viable option, please dios.’_

“Ahaha.” Cyra laughs a little awkwardly. “Just joking around! Let’s get these guys!”

Razz looks at her for a second longer, before slowly turning on her phone and opening the door.

Cyra wants to melt down to the Earth’s core, but refrains from doing that and follows after Razz.

“Hi there, sir? What are you doing?” Cyra asks, keeping her voice a couple notches high, and curious.

The man initially tenses up, but when he turns around and sees two (seemingly) harmless women he relaxes. However, he still stands protectively in front of the cans.

“Ah, hello miss.” He begins, then nods to Razz. “Miss. I’m, ah, putting a water purification solution in this lake. It’s been very polluted this time ‘round so we decided to clear it.”

“We? Oh! Are you working with a company then?” Cyra asks, a fake blinding smile on her face.

“Yes ma’am.” The guy’s chest swells a little, clearly buying into Cyra’s act. “Eternia’s spearheading the entire operation.”

_‘It is way too easy to toy with him. Just a little more.’_

“Oh wow! Eternia! Gosh this must be a big project huh? You guys must have had to take written agreements or the sort from the people who live here right?” She asks, pretending to check him out. (She is barfing in her mouth dios please save her)  
  


“Yeah, the people who live here were _all_ over it. Signed so quickly heh.” The guy boasts.

_‘Gotcha’_

“That’s so nice! Do you think I can look into the barrels real quick? Please? I’ve always wondered what water purification solutions look like!”

The guy clearly hesitates for a moment, before he steps aside, self assured. 

“Go on, take a look.” He says, winking at Cyra.

_‘Barf.’_

Cyra and Razz step forward to peer in the can, Razz discreetly getting a shot of the contents under the guise of pushing some of her hair back.

“The people who live here signed their consent, you say?” Razz asks as she steps back, her tone conversational but Cyra can detect a certain _something_ in her voice.

_‘This wasn’t in the plan Razz what the fuck.’_

“Yes ma’am.” The guy says, looking a little confused.

“Well.” Razz continues, even with Cyra’s subtle signs for her to shush, eyes alight with fury. “I just think it’s funny seeing as I live on this land yet have never even received a single form for any activity like this.”

The man seems to flounder for words before he notices Razz’s phone and his features harden.

“Give me that!” He tries to make a lunge for her phone, but Razz is quicker than him.

“Run!” She yells as the man crashes into the cans and falls.

____________________________________________________________________________

Adora gasps, seeing horses trot on the screen. “Micah! Micah Horsies! Micah!”

Micha looks up from his phone, enthusiastically grinning with Adora. “Yes! Horses! They’re cute aren’t they?”

Adora turns back to the screen, transfixed. “So cute, I wanna pet.” She mumbles into Catarina’s hair as she snuggles closer.

They watch silently for a while, the occasional gasp or coo being released at the horses.

Glimmer gasps loudly as Beauty dumps the rich, spoiled kid on the ground. “Yes! Go Beauty!”

They fall into silence again until Ginger is being restrained tighter and tighter.

“No! You’ll hurt her!” Adora yells, tears welling up in her eyes. Catarina and Glimmer snuggle closer to Adora to show some comfort.

On screen, Ginger rears on her hind legs, breaking free of her restraints.

“Yes!” Adora jumps, violently dislodging Catarina and Glimmer who had been resting on her shoulders. “Micah she’s free!”

Micah matches her enthusiasm. “Yes she is! She’s so cool!” 

Adora grins at him, sitting down again, flapping her hands happily. 

____________________________________________________________________________

  
  


Sir ‘Bitches A Lot’ sputters, face going red. “Do you know who you’re talking to?!” He demands, voice almost shrieking.

“The next person to leave my company.” Angella deadpans, she was done with his shit a _century_ ago. She will have to sanitise everything the _ghada_ has touched. 

“I will not allow, a, a- _you_ to talk to me like that? It’s bad enough that you let.” He takes a minute to breathe in sharply and hisses. “All sorts of people into your company. Think about the children.”

Angella’s BP is dangerously high. She is going to chuck this guy out of the window, consequences be damned. 

_‘How dare he?!’_ An angry voice whispers deep within her. 

The rest of the room’s occupants, 80 percent of whom were non-white and didn’t idenitfy as cis and straight, shifted uncomfortably, a few even looking elsewhere.

“Are you going to leave by yourself or would you rather I have you escorted?” Angella’s voice takes on a dangerous undertone.

The man whines and grumbles and throws himself back in his chair petulantly.

Angella raises a no nonsense eyebrow. “Very well, if you’d like to degrade your dignity even further, I have no complaints.” 

And with that she presses the button on her chair to alert the security, it had been installed to deal with people like these.

Sure enough, within a minute security shows up at the door.

She waves them in with a friendly smile. “Good afternoon Hank and Freddy. Would you be so kind as to escort Mr. Bitte out of the premises?”

“Of course Angella.” Freddy replies, mouth forming a hard line as he faces the dick.

The “man” in question jumps up from his chair with a sneer on his face. 

“I don’t want to associate myself with your company anyway. All you have is-”

____________________________________________________________________________

Cyra is sort of panicking.

She’s trying to push it away because she’s a little busy right now. Y’know, with running from a henchman of an evil corporation.

Really takes up a girl’s time and priorities, who knew.

Razz and her head towards the busy streets with an unspoken agreement, more cover that way.

“Here!” Razz says, pulling her into an empty alleyway. 

Razz gently pushes her against the wall, bushing, and awkwardly says:

"I uh, public displays of affection make people uncomfortable and they–"

“AAAHHHH!” Cyra yells as she lets her fist fly towards Razz’s face. 

Her brain has shut down. She’s working on autopilot.

Her fist catches Razz’s cheek, who stumbles and looks at her hurt.

“Do you want to fight me?! Huh! Is that it?!” Cyra yells at her, voice sounding crazed even to her ears.

Razz’s eyes seem to lighten in understanding. “Come at me you _bitch_!” Razz sneers at her, fists raised up. 

Cyra lets out another feral cry before she throws herself at Razz.

Razz easily sidesteps Cyra, letting her momentum carry her deeper into the alley.

Cyra and Razz circle each other, letting out angry cries as they collide.

A voice wafts through the air. “Yes boss I’m looking for them right now.” 

It’s Eternia’s henchman.

Razz’s eyes widen in panic before she yells, faking a punch. “Take _that_ you Starbucks drinking psycho!” 

The henchman’s footsteps seem to pick up, as his voice drifts further from their ears.

Cyra and Razz take a collective sigh of relief.

“Ow.” Razz pouts, touching her cheek. 

“Shit,” Cyra’s eyes widen guiltily. “I’m so sorry Razz I didn’t mean to hit you.”

Razz smiles at her, waving it off.

“You can kiss it better as an apology.” She teases, only half joking.

Cyra bites her lip, before shrugging. “Sure.”

____________________________________________________________________________

“No! It wasn’t his fault! You can’t sell him!” Catarina glares at the screen, furiously blinking away tears.

The movie doesn’t listen to Catarina and Beauty is sold to a caddy driver in London.

She takes the hand of a sobbing Adora, jutting her bottom lip out as an effort to not cry.

All three kids and Micah relax once they realize that the caddy driver is nice and Beauty is being loved by his kids.

____________________________________________________________________________

  
  


“Enough.” Angella says, voice firm, stopping whatever bigoted words the man was about to spew.

Immediately Freddy and Hank seize the man by his arms and frog march him outside.

Angella sighs as the man’s abominable screams finally fade away.

She looks up at her employees. “I am truly very sorry for the vile man that has just left us. Had I known about his bigotry beforehand I would’ve never allowed him to set foot in this company. I- please, if you need to, take the rest of the day off and tomorrow too. Paid leaves of course and they won’t count with your sick leaves or your holidays. And if you want to talk, to me, Micah or the company therapist please do.”

Angella briefly glances down at her hands. “Once again I can not express how sorry I am.”

Vivianne, who had the displeasure of sitting next to her reaches over and squeezes her hand reassuringly. “Don’t beat yourself up Angella. Dicks pop up from everywhere.”

The rest of the room resonates with Vivianne’s statement.

“Dicks are popping everywhere except here!” Jaime, her project manager, groans as he slumps over the table.

“Ugh.” Miranda, another employee says, disgusted. “You can have mine.”

Angella has to smile as everyone erupts into light-hearted conversation.

“Hey Angella, do you want us to complete the meeting?” Her head of finance, Kaylee Jones, asks her.

Angella suppresses her need to groan, she hates those meetings. She’d much rather be down in the labs and _build_. 

But alas to run a company meant to take care of paperwork and meetings. 

And she loves her employees, so she smiles at them.

“If you guys want to. If you don’t then just send me the files. It’s fine either way.”

Her employees take a second to think it over before they all shake their head.

“Oh thank gods.” Angella slumps in her seat with relief.

A few of them snicker at her and she waves a lazy hand.

“I banish you all to have a fun day or whatnot.” 

As they disperse, slight panic grips her and she whips out her phone.

**Love of my life💞 3:03**

Micah I think I fucked up

I may have made us an enemy

  
  


**Simp💍 3:04**

Ginger DIED

😭😭😭

HOW COULD THEY

_‘Oh gods my husband has finally lost his last brain cell.’_ Angella thinks to herself, shaking her head at his loss. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Soft.

That’s all Razz feels.

Razz panics inside.

_‘Holyfuckshe’skissingmeI’mgoingtodieohno.’_

She thought it was bad enough seeing Cyra lean in.

But no.

Her soft lips were _torture_.

Cyra’s feather light kiss seems to linger for a moment, before she pulls away.

“Better?” Cyra asks, as if she didn’t just kill Razz.

Razz nods, as she colours. “Ye-yeah.”

Cyra looks around. “Come on, lets see if we can make it home.”

On high alert, they make their way back to their cars, seeing no henchman jump out at them. 

Razz is unable to concentrate, playing the kiss in her head on a loop.

It was only a cheek kiss but Razz is _gay_ okay?

“Hey.” Cyra starts, effectively breaking Razz’s gay spiral. 

Scratch that, looking at Cyra is making her spiral again.

“Text me when you get home okay?” Cyra touches her arm with an imploring look on her face.

_Fuck_. Razz is a goner.

“I will.” Razz manages to say, smiling at her. “You too okay?”

Cyra nods and before long she’s driving away.

Razz exhales slowly. She needs a lot of strength to survive this woman.

____________________________________________________________________________

Micah is a mess. 

This was supposed to be a nice, kid friendly movie.

So why is his heart ripped out?! 

In the pillow fort all three kids are sobbing loudly.

“I’m.” Glimmer hiccups. “I’m just happy that Beauty had a nice home in the end.”

The other three murmur their agreement through their tears.

The door opens and Angella steps through. 

She freezes midstep, seeing four tearstained faces staring back at her.

“Mom!”

“Mami!”

“Angie!” 

Glimmer, Adora and Micah cry out, Glimmer and Adora rushing to Angella, dragging Catarina along.

At Adora’s cry Angella’s eyes snap to Micah’s. He seems to get emotional, tears welling up in his eyes again.

It’s the first time Adora has referred to them as her parents. Both of their hearts are _singing_.

Angella drops to her knees, holding her arms open. “How have you three been?” She asks, pressing a kiss of each of their heads.

“We-” Glimmer starts before Adora cuts her off.

“We watched a horse movie but it was sad! And happy!” 

“Yeah?” Angella asks, mostly to keep her tears at bay.

As Adora nods at Angella, Glimmer tugs at Adora’s sleeve.

“Hey Adora? You kind of cut me off while I was talking.” When Adora looks guilty Glimmer scrunches her nose up. “It’s okay but don’t do it again okay?”

Adora agrees enthusiastically.

Tears are welling up in her eyes again and she doesn’t know if it’s because of the asshole at the office, Adora calling her ‘mami’ or that her kids aren’t letting people walk over them, even if it’s their own sibling.

“Is it okay if we go out?” Catarina asks her, looking carefully at her teary eyes.

“Yes, sure.” Angella says, trying not to let the thickness of her voice leak through.

As soon as the kids are out of view Angella collapses on the sofa, half on Micah, body tense.

He runs a calming hand through her hair, and she sticks her head in his neck. 

“Rough day?” He asks, continuing to run his hand through her hair.

Angella groans softly, shifting slightly to throw an arm against Micah’s middle. 

“There was a _ghada_ in the form of an investor.”

Micah winces. “Yikes. Bad enough to invoke Urdu curses?” 

Angella nuzzles deeper, eyes closing. “Yes, checked off all the bigot boxes. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, you know?”

“Fiddlesticks Angie. I’m sorry, I wanted to see you kill that guy.”

When Angella laughs softly he continues.

“He didn’t think it through did he? Trying to bring his bigotry to a company led by an Asian, bisexual _and_ trans couple.”

Angella grumbles softly. “I might have actually killed him had he dared to say anything about you.” 

In response he tightens his arms around her and pecks her forehead. 

“I love you.”

Angella props her chin on his chest, leaning forward to press her lips to his. 

“I love you too.” She whispers to him, looking lovingly into his eyes.

The moment is broken by the doorbell ringing.

Angella groans loudly as Micah carefully deposits her on the sofa.

“Come back.” She whines when Micah makes his way to the door. 

He throws her a grin as he opens the door, revealing Cyra behind it.

She kisses Micah’s cheek as a greeting and beelines for the sofa, slumping on it bonelessly.

Angella promptly puts her feet on her lap.

“What’s got you bothered?” Angella asks a deep in thought Cyra.

Cyra looks over to them, Micah having joined Angella, her head in his lap.

She scrunches her nose up, and it’s utterly reminiscent to Catarina that it makes Angella’s heart tighten. 

Cyra unconsciously begins massages Angella’s calves. Angella loves this woman.

“Okay so I know I’m a strong, established and independent woman. But,” She scrunches her nose again, and continues in a baby voice. “Sometimes I want cuddles and soft kisses and not so soft kisses.”

“Aww are you talking about _Razz_?” Micah coos at her.

Cyra glares at Micah without any heat behind it.

“Yes.” She says grumpily.

“Aww Micah, the baby’s feelings are getting _deeper_. She’s growing up!”

“I hate you guys.” Cyra groans as Angella and Micah wipe imaginary tears from their eyes.

“So what happened today with _Razz_.” Micah wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Cyra’s cheeks colour and Angella catches her prey.

“She blushes! Now you _have_ to tell us.” Angella prods her with a toe.

Cyra looks away for a second. “I may have… kissed her.”

“On the cheek!” She exclaims when Angella and Micah gasp loudly. 

“How’d you end up there?” Micah asks, incredulous.

Cyra sighs and recounts the events leading to the fateful cheek kiss.

“You punched her?!” Angella yells, chucking a cushion at Cyra.

“I panicked okay!” Cyra yells back, raising her hand to catch the pillow.

“Shaking my head, diaster lesbian strikes again.” Angella mumbles to herself. 

“I resent that.” Cyra says, tickling the bottom of Angella’s foot as revenge.

She gets a kick for her efforts.

“Don’t you dare.” Angella warns her.

Cyra heeds her warning. This time. And asks what the other two had been up to that day.

She let’s their voices wash over her as she lets herself relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bitte means cock in french, I called him a dick. Please validate me.
> 
> Comments and kudos? Instant serotonin


	12. Fuck mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyy. So as it turns out, I'm alive!
> 
> Excuse the month long wait for a meager 3k, my mental health hasn't been the best but hopefully, it'll pass.
> 
> Also I've watched the haunting of Bly manor like twice, please talk to me about it.
> 
> In any case, kudos and comments very appreciated.
> 
> P.S. I love you lot and you're doing great, even if it doesn't feel like it!

Cyra is bone tired.

Her eyes can’t take the harshness of the sun as she slowly shuffles out of her bedroom with her blanket wrapped around her like a big cocoon.

Catarina isn’t faring much better. She emerges from her room, rubbing her eyes slowly. Her hair could be called a bird’s nest if one was feeling charitable. It defied gravity with every curl on her head.

Catarina bumps into a wall.

“Oh, lo siento.” She yawns, not even noticing that she just apologised to a _wall_.

Cyra would find it funny if she wasn’t cursing every power imaginable for letting morning people decide work timings. 

Cyra collapses on the sofa.

Catarina shuffles over to her and drops against her legs, not even bothering to climb in Cyra’s lap.

“I wanna sleep mami.” Catarina says, voice muffled against Cyra’s shins.

“Me too mija.” Cyra groans, eyes feeling as though they had a weight pressed on them. “Nap?”

“Yes.” Catarina murmurs, climbing in Cyra’s lap with great difficulty.

Cyra stretches out on the sofa, Catarina’s head on her chest, and wraps her blanket around both of them.

They’re both out in seconds.

* * *

They wake up some time around 12, their stomach’s grumbling too great for either of them to ignore.

Just as they’re done eating brunch, the doorbell rings. 

Cyra trudges towards the door, vestiges of fatigue still lingering.

Angella’s bright face greets her as she opens the door, she steps up and kisses Cyra’s cheeks.

“Hey lady death, met any trash panda’s that may have inspired your new look?” She asks, with a small laugh.

Cyra glares at her, furiously willing the blood in her face to go away. “ _Screw you._ ” She hisses in a low tone, leaving a stiff kiss against Angella’s cheek.

Angella just smirks at her, looping her arms around Cyra’s waist in a loose sort of hug. 

“I’ll have to discuss it with Micah but that holds so much potential.” She teases with a wink.

“Shut up.” Cyra whines, wrapping her own arms tight around Angella’s middle. Because of the height difference between them, her words end up smushed in Angella’s shoulder. 

Cyra’s height was respectable and solid 5’7. Curse Angella and her giantess genes that made her tower at 6’2.

Angella’s frame shakes with laughter before she asks, “Hey, have you bought Catarina’s school supplies already?”

Cyra freezes. _Fuck_ she had totally forgotten that Catarina starts school in two days. Fuck, how could she--

“Don’t worry, we haven’t either.” Angella rubs Cyra’s back lightly, trying to soothe her. “It’s why I’m here actually, wanted to ask you if you wanted to come with us while we wrangle all the preschoolers together.”

Cyra relaxes in Angella’s hold. “That sounds great actually. Give us a few to look presentable and we can go.”

Angella squeezes her once before letting her go with a smile. “Take your time, lady death.”

* * *

15 minutes later Catarina and Cyra stumble out of the house, blearily blinking against the bright sunlight.

Cyra unlocks her car and is just about to open the door for Catarina when a voice calls out,

“Cyra! We’re carpooling and taking our van!” 

Cyra turns to see Micah waving at her, next to their kid-friendly minivan. 

That thing checks off all the preppy boxes and Cyra remembers Angella bemoaning the utter surburbanness of the van. 

Cyra shoots him a thumbs up and gets to dismantling Catarina’s booster seat.

Booster seat in hand, she takes a deep breath as she makes her way to the minivan. Who knew that such a day would come where she, Cyra fucking Sanchez, would ride in a minivan. Willingly. Dios help the world.

With a great blow to her pride, Cyra installs Catarina’s booster seat in the minivan. Angella watches her with a vindictive smile.

_‘If I have to suffer so do you.’_ Her smile seems to say. Cyra wants to scratch it off.

The kids, ignoring Cyra’s homicidal urges and Angella’s smugness, clamber excitedly into their seats in the back.

“It’s so cool that we get to go to the mall together!” Glimmer enthuses.

Adora, who’s sitting in the middle, smiles excitedly and reaches for Glimmer’s and Catarina’s hands. “It’s going to be great!”

Cyra can’t begrudge the kids their happiness, so with a deep sigh she bites the bullet and buckles herself in.

“Great!” Micah says, sitting in the passenger seat. “Let’s get this show on the road shall we?!”

His playful yelling is met with a rowdy cheer from the kids, who were way too energetic to be stuck in a car.

Micah turns around with a grin and presses play on his phone.

Immediately ‘Wheels on the bus’ starts filtering out from the speakers.

Cyra slides down in her seat with a groan.

_‘Cancelling that raincheck now dios. Come and take me.’_

* * *

Somehow Cyra makes it alive to the mall.

She lost touch with reality after the fifth time ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ was repeated.

She’s pretty sure Angella broke around 50 laws to get here this quickly but she’s so relieved she could kiss the dirty and cracked pavement.

Don’t get her wrong, she _adores_ Catarina with everything she has.

Children’s songs however, are her biggest downfalls. She just can’t deal with them. 

Judging from Angella’s haggard expressions Cyra knows she feels the same.

Micah on the other hand, turns around and gives the kids a wide grin. “We’re here!”

Micah’s grin is too wide to be innocent, it has a smidge of smugness into it. Cyra’s eyes narrow.

The bastard knew exactly what he was doing, he was doing it to torture them.

She will gladly team up with Angella for his demise. Afterall, she knows the law.

She meets Micah’s gaze and his smile turns the slightest bit more shrewd.

His death is set in stone.

As soon as the minivan rolls to a stop the kids desperately try to free themselves of their cages, ready to terrorize people in the mall. 

Cyra is more than okay with letting the tiny balls of raw energy escape first, she needs a minute to gather herself anyway.

Angella slumps forward tiredly as Cyra is praying to a higher power for strength. Micah laughs at them openly, not a single trace of pity to be detected in his voice.

“Come on now, we still have to go to shops _with_ the kids.” He says with a sinister smile.

“Micah Jeremiah Fukuhara I am going to _murder_ you so help me God.” Angella groans, one of her hands going to rest at his neck.

“Jokes on you I’m in to that and you know it.” Micah’s grin turns flirty.

Angella immediately flushes and retracts her hand as Cyra pretends to gag loudly.

“ _Gross._ ” She whines, furiously trying to undo the last 30 seconds. 

“Mami! Come on!” Adora frowns at them, clearly unhappy at their dawdling.

Cyra’s eyes flit over to Angella and Micah as they try not to tear up. 

“We’ll be right there cariño.” Cyra smiles at Adora, saving Angella and Micah from having to answer.

Adora looks at her for a moment, and apparently deciding Cyra is telling the truth, skips back to Catarina and Glimmer.

“Pardon us, it’s just…” Micah stops, biting down on his lip.

“It’s alright, I understand what you mean. I broke down crying when Catarina called me mami for the first time.” Cyra tries to reassure them. It’s true, her mami had to hold her as Cyra blubbered about how much she loved Catarina.

Angella smiles at that. “Come on,if we make them wait any longer I think they’ll try to take hostages.” 

With that they finally exit the van, the three kids groaning with relief when they see them.

“Finally! I thought we’d never see you again!” Glimmer exclaims dramatically.

The adults snicker at her, exchanging amused glances.

“Alright, everyone grab someone else’s hand.” Angella instructs.

When the kids immediately grab each other’s hand, Angella laughs and elaborates,

“I meant grab on to an adult’s hand.”

When the kids visibly deflate Cyra pipes in.

“You can hold each other’s hand so long as at least one of you is holding on to an adult.”

Glimmer offers her hand to Micah like she’s offering up a great sacrifice to the Gods.

Micah solemnly takes her hand, already envisioning the jail breaks.

Angella claps her hands once. “Let’s get started.”

* * *

Picking out shoes and clothes goes relatively uneventful.

The trouble starts stirring as they move to get stationeries. The kids, having had to go a whole half an hour doing boring stuff are fairly antsy now.

Micah, figuring that the kids couldn’t get into much trouble in a stationery shop, releases them on the condition they stay inside the shop at all times.

He heaves a deep sigh as they run away from him, he loves those little troublemakers but God knows he doesn't want to get caught on the wrong end of their boredom.

He represses a shudder and sends out a quick prayer for whatever poor soul comes across his little hell-mongering goblins. He scans the store with a lazy eye before he spots ‘it’.

_‘Ooh pens. Can never have too many good ones.’_ He squeals to himself as beelines for them.

* * *

Angella is perusing the notebooks section. Kindergarteners didn’t need notebooks obviously, who’d in their right mind give young developing kids work additional to the hours they have to spend at school? A laughable concept.

But no, Angella is looking for notebooks for herself. Not that she writes or anything, she just likes to collect them. And occasionally use one as an impromptu planner. But they’re usually bought for the sole purpose of pleasing her monkey brain.

She pauses, hand hovering above a _beautiful_ notebook. It is quiet. Too quiet. She had 5 kids in this store and this could only be the silence before the storm.

Ignoring her Motherly Instincts she turns back to her books.

At least the _books_ won’t commit any crimes.

* * *

Cyra dumps a pack of markers in her shopping basket. Catarina loves crafts and she will do her damndest to ensure that she positively nurtures that passion. No expectations attached but a bucket load of praise and affection.

_‘Paint? Fuck yeah she’s going to love destroying everything with paint.’_ And in the bucket the paint goes.

As she bends down to look at a box of chalk for herself, something whizzes behind her at top speed.

Briefly losing her balance, she braces against the shelf and whips her head over to see the retreating back of a kid on a scooter.

Cyra hesitates. She wants to go after the kid and make sure they’re okay, but then again, stranger danger.

She looks down at her basket, biting her lip. 

_‘At least they were wearing a helmet?’_ Her mind offers up weakly.

With a sigh she shakes her head, the kid is probably long gone by now.

Couldn’t be one of her kids ‘cause they were with Micah.

* * *

Glimmer is absolutely buzzing.

Her dad let them go explore alone! This is going to be great!

With an unspoken agreement they race towards the toys section. Immediately they're stupefied by the sheer variety of grabbable things. 

“Let’s play a game!“ Glimmer suggests. 

When the other two look at her for clarification she grins and rubs her hands together. 

“We take 5 minutes to gear up and it’s kind of like tag but no one is the tagger and we just have to try and attack and win from each other.”

Immediately both Adora’s and Catarina’s eyes light up.

“Glimmer you’re so smart!” Adora exclaims, eyes filling with pride for her sister. 

“This is going to be great, you're both going down.” Catarina says ominously, a gleam in her eye that Glimmer does _not_ like. But she’s not going to back down from a challenge.

She raises her chin. “Let’s get started.” And with that they’re off.

* * *

Catarina squares her shoulders, scanning the rows determinedly and mentally cataloguing her gear. Bucket that substituted as a helmet? Check. An oversized Catchers vest to serve as armour? Check. Last but not the least, her pride and joy, her lightsaber and her foam darts. 

Her tio Frankie will be _so_ proud of her.

* * *

Glimmer adjusts the bandolier across her shoulder with fire in her eyes, sprinkling glitter in her nerf gun with fiery precision. 

They won’t get the drop on her. She’ll make them regret even _thinking_ about beating her.

She pulls the safety on the nerf gun.

She’s got nothing to lose but so much to win.

* * *

Micah squints at the package of yatate in his hand.

“What? This is _not_ Japanese.” He mutters angrily, the offending package of (most definitely fake) yatate in his hand boldly claiming ‘Authentic Japanese writing utensils!’. “It’s flipping _Korean_ . Flipping get your head out of your own… _derriere_ and recognise that there are different countries in East-Asia all of which have their own bleeding script and are not interchangeable with each other!”

He takes a deep breath to stabilize himself, still glaring at the infuriating--

“You said it son. How do the kids say it… preach.” 

Micah turns around to see an older lady nodding at him with a pleased look on her face.

His cheeks colour.

_‘Fiddlesticks. I didn’t think there was anyone behind me.’_

He awkwardly nods to her and she chuckles at him as she walks away.

“I’ll show them. It’ll be an aggressive fist to face sparkles!” A voice mutters mutinously.

Micah’s eyes widen as he sweeps his eyes across the pen’s section.

“Glimmer?” 

* * *

Angella inhales deeply, nose pressed to a leather book. There was just something so deeply _calming_ about the smell of a leather notebook. Truly, she felt no such fulfillment elsewhere.

... Alright, maybe she felt it _sometimes_ with her _family_ that she _loves_.

…Perhaps not as much as the smells of leather notebooks, fire and the sea.

Wait no, she’s a mother, isn’t it her mortal duty to love the snooty faces of her crime loving children?

_‘But leather notebooks, fire and the sea_ wouldn’t _give you grey hair.’_ A voice in her head says snootily.

“Fair enough inner me.” She mumbles, nodding her head in acquiescence.

She’s so caught up in the moral dilemma of preferring aesthetic smells to her lovely children

that she almost doesn’t catch Catarina marching past her.

“Whoa there, what are you doing love?” She asks, holding a hand in front of a determined looking Catarina.

Catarina looks up at her, eyes narrowing in contemplation. “Me, Glimmer and Adora are playing a game. Whoever attacks the other two first and wins is the winner. Want to help me?”

Angella raises an eyebrow. “Isn’t that cheating?”

Catarina raises one shoulder and brings it down. “The only rules are that you have to attack and win.”

_‘You know what? Let’s fucking do it.’_ Angella decides. “Alright, on one condition.”

Catarina frowns at her in suspicion, ever her mother’s daughter. “What condition?”

At this Angella’s smirks. 

* * *

“Alright, that’s probably more than enough.” Cyra sighs to herself, resisting the urge to pick more balls of yarn. 

Oh yeah that’s right, she _knits_. She might drive herself crazy with the effort that goes into knitting but, it’s oddly soothing. And she learned it with her mami, so it just holds a special place in her heart.

The back of her neck tingles like she’s being watched. She frowns and turns, sweeping her eyes around the aisle.

_‘I knew it was a bad idea to watch The haunting of Bly manor at 3am in the dark. This is what you get Cyra, for watching creepy ass kids be creepy.’_ She groans inwardly.

“Flora? Miles?” She whispers for the hell of it.

There is of course no answer, and the feeling persists.

_‘Wouldn’t mind if it were Dani or Jamie would you? You useless lesbian.’_ A voice, sounding alarmingly like her sister Gina, taunts her.

_‘Fuck you Gina.’_ She thinks petulantly.

She hears the faint skid of a tire against a tile and the unnerving feeling of being watched disappears.

_‘Scooter fiend?’_ Cyra thinks.

“Ugh.” Cyra shuts her eyes tightly.

_‘You aren’t responsible for the kid.’_ A subconscious voice reminds her.

_‘Oh but I am.’_ Cyra replies. _‘Can’t stand by while the kid can get hurt can I?’_

The voice has no answer.

_‘It’s settled, then.’_ She decides.

* * *

Adora scooters down the aisles, looking determinedly for her sister and wife, the order didn’t matter.

She had nearly been caught by Cyra, right by the paints. But Cyra had said... Flora and Miles? So she supposes it doesn’t count.

Making a sharp turn with one hand as she waves her sword with the other. In terms of armour… she has none. She’ll fight better without anything blocking her movements and making her feel clumsy, she’s plenty clumsy on her own thank you very much.

“Glimmer?” She hears Micah’s voice call out faintly.

Adora’s eyes widen. 

She has to get her!

* * *

Angella and Catarina make a pretty good team as it turns out. Angella contributes with her height, keeping an eye out for her daughters, and Catarina formulates ideas for what Angella and her had agreed on.

“Hiyah!” They hear Glimmer’s unmistakable voice ring out.

They look at each other and give the other a solitary nod. They move as one, towards the sound of Adora and Glimmer battling.

“Glimmer? Adora? Where are you both?” Micah asks.

Angella and Catarina look at each other again, eyes widening.

Quickly recovering, Angella clasps her hands. “You have your orders.”

Giving Angella a crisp salute, Catarina slinks off.

* * *

Micah’s head swivels around wildly as he tries to find his daughters via echolocation. He can _hear_ them but he just can’t seem to _find_ them. 

“Mama! Mama!” 

Micah nearly jumps out his skin and immediately takes a defensive stance. 

He scans the row with a hawk’s gaze, only for his eyes to land on a bald baby doll, the packaging proudly proclaiming ‘Press here!’. He drops his stance and drags himself towards the grotesque object. With shaking and hesitant fingers he presses the middle of the doll’s… stomach. Sure enough, the abominable thing jumps to life and screeches ‘Mama! Mama!’ once more.

He jumps back, eyes closing in reflex and a shiver wracks his body. He has hated dolls, puppets and everything related to the sort after watching ‘The Doll Master’ at the tender age of 14. 

One of his ex-boyfriend’s mother had been into collecting dolls and had proudly shown him the frankly impressive collection. Micah had fled the house as soon as it was legally allowed to.

He tries to stand upright and walks away from the doll with as much dignity as his panic will allow.

After his discomfort dissipates, he notices that he’s in the toy’s section, and it's a pretty long row filled with toys.

_‘I may as well.’_ He rationalises. _‘I’ll see if I can’t find something funky along the way.’_

The thought of finding Adora and Glimmer are pushed from his mind as he studies the packaging of a nerf gun. 

“My enemies will fall! Adventure!” A robotic voice yells.

Micah’s hand tightens around the nerf gun as his head whips around. His eyes land on a toy gun that’s lit up in dizzying colours and mimicking some awful variation of shots.

“Get a hold on yourself Micah.” He mutters to himself. “Angella isn’t going to jump out on you brandishing a sword.”

_‘Although…’_ His mind starts. _‘That certainly is a visual.’_

Something lightly taps his knee. He bends down to pick it up and it turns out to be a nerf dart.

“What the hell?” He says, too focused on the dart to realise what’s behind him.

It is his greatest regret.


	13. How did it end up like this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am alive!
> 
> Life happened as it does and i found myself with barely enough energy to like, do stuff y'know? 
> 
> Anywhos I'm here now! How are yall?
> 
> Also, y'all are appreciated and are doing an a m a z i n g job, even if it doesn't feel like it. Listen, a 14th peasant century couldn't cope with all this so, keep doing what you're doing
> 
> Also!!! Thank you for the kudos!!! And the comments!!! And the hits!!!

“Hello?” Cyra calls out to empty rows. “Scooter kid? You here?”

There is no response. 

Cyra sighs, running a hand through her hair. 

_ ‘Ugh. Come on scooter kid, assuage my fears. Show me you haven’t gotten a damn concussion or hit your head so hard that your brain is leaking out of your ears.’ _

_ ‘...Cyra, that’s not how it works.’  _ A voice in her consciousness speaks up hesitantly.

_ ‘Thank you for your input Dr. Gabriela but I’d rather you use your intellect to help me find the kid.’ _

“Hi-ya!” A voice rings out, cutting through Cyra’s musings.

_ ‘Glimmer?’ _

“You won’t survive this!”

_ ‘Adora?! What the everloving  _ fuck  _ are these kids doing now?!’ _

______________________________________________________________________________

Catarina slinks around the shelves closest to Adora and Glimmer fighting. Her job for Angella was complete, phase two of their plan would start in a little while. She just has to find the perfect spot.

______________________________________________________________________________

Angella is fucking  _ buzzing _ .

She smirks when she sees Micah’s turned back, quietly turning off the safety of the nerf gun.

_ ‘Years of marriage should’ve taught him better. Oh well.’ _

“Hey.” She calls, cocking the gun.

______________________________________________________________________________

Glimmer snarls as she misses another shot and Adora’s sword manages to snag her arm.

“Ready to give up?” Adora taunts, even though she isn’t faring much better; she’s panting and her arms tremble with every swing of her sword.

“Never.” Glimmer narrows her eyes, raising her gun to take another shot.

______________________________________________________________________________

Micah turns, only to be met with the sight of his wife cocking a nerf gun at him.

His stomach drops.

_ No. _

He can’t--

This  _ can’t _ be happening.

“Say goodbye dear husband,” she says in a low tone, smirking.

Micah shivers. Angella  _ knows  _ what that voice does to him.

And  _ God _ . Why does he have to be such a big  _ simp? _

______________________________________________________________________________

Cyra is  _ pretty _ sure she’s near where Adora and Glimmer are.

“AHHHHH!” A voice yells, equal parts terrified and equal parts an attempt to seem confident.

Cyra’s eyes widen. That was Catarina’s voice!

Cyra rounds the corner just as the contents of the shelf blow outwards, toys raining down on the stunned pair in the center of the aisle. Adora and Glimmer, caught totally unawares, can only gape as Catarina appears from her hiding place within the shelf, already mid leap.

Somehow managing to loop an arm around Adora and Glimmer, Catarina uses her momentum to bring them to the floor. The impact knocks the air out of the three of them and they instinctively curl into themselves.

“Ow!” Adora and Glimmer whine just as Catarina says “I win!”

Just as Cyra is about to ask what the everloving  _ fuck _ is going on, she hears a crash from the next aisle. 

Before she can even begin to  _ think  _ about checking that out, she hears two  _ very _ familiar voices ring out at the same time. 

“Angella Chandni Fukuhara-Khan!”

“Micah Jeremiah Fukuhara!”

“What is going on over here?” A person donning the store’s name on their vest asks as they materialise out of seemingly nowhere. 

They look weary and tired. 

_ ‘Son of a motherfucking shit bucket.’  _

Cyra tries to give them her best smile.

They take a deep sigh and speak into their earpiece. “Hey can I get the manager in aisle 15? Thanks.”

Cyra refuses the urge to yell ‘Scatter!’, she will deal with this like the grown woman she is.

Those plans go down the drain when a  _ beautiful _ , tattooed woman rounds the corner with a scowl on her face. And- holy  _ fuck  _ her arms were  _ bulging _ in the t-shirt. Cyra is helplessly transfixed as those well defined arms lift up and cross against the woman’s body, making them pop out even more.

The woman says something, tone vaguely curt. 

  
“Hi.” Cyra says, her mind still reeling from the  _ arms _ .

**Author's Note:**

> gilipollas- stupid dick/idiot  
> En serio? Mi reinita tiene hambre?- really? my little queen is hungry?


End file.
